Everybody Hates Payton – CelticsBlog

It’s a troublesome time to be Payton Pritchard.

Properly, probably not. He’s nonetheless making hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to play basketball for a dwelling. Nevertheless, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for Pritchard. In actual fact, he’s in a fairly unlucky place.

That is the second straight offseason during which he has been successfully buried within the depth chart as a result of additions of different gifted guards. Final yr it was Dennis Schroder. Everyone knows how that labored out for the Celtics, and it impacted Pritchard considerably too, as he spent half of the season enjoying spot minutes. Consequently, his alternatives have been scarce and his manufacturing suffered.

After Schroder was traded, Pritchard stepped again into an efficient bench function, proving his price when referred to as upon and serving to Boston attain the NBA Finals for the primary time since 2010. As for his contributions within the precise Finals, nicely… we received’t go into that.

Coming off one other spectacular season at simply 24 years previous, Pritchard was desirous to step into a bigger function within the 2022-23 marketing campaign. “My first purpose is discovering constant minutes each night time and gaining the belief the place I could be on the market 20 minutes an evening or extra with out it fluctuating,” Pritchard said at his exit interview.

Naturally, one would assume that Boston was prepared for him to take the subsequent step, proper?

Nope.

On July 1, Brad Stevens shocked the basketball world by buying and selling pennies on the greenback for Malcolm Brogdon, one of many premier combo guards within the league.

The Celtics have indicated that they intend to make use of Brogdon as their sixth man to be able to preserve final yr’s beginning lineup intact and handle the 29-year-old’s minutes.

What does that imply for Pritchard? Properly, he’s now the third guard off the bench on among the finest groups within the NBA. Whereas Brogdon, Marcus Sensible, and Derrick White are certain to overlook time all through the season, Pritchard is probably going taking a look at sporadic enjoying time.

One other offseason, one other irritating growth for the promising guard.

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What function will Pritchard play this season?

The Celtics have three large guards who can technically play 1-3 in Sensible, Brogdon, and White. All of these guys can defend wings to an extent, which is crucial issue on this dialog.

Pritchard is strictly a degree guard. At 6’1 — which may be a beneficiant itemizing — he holds his personal towards bigger opponents, however Boston would favor to match him up towards smaller guards.

Ime Udoka will probably purpose to restrict Al Horford’s and Rob Williams’ minutes this season. Al is now 36, and whereas we’d like to see him look as spry as final yr, the one sensible path to make that occur is retaining him nicely below half-hour per recreation and resting him in back-to-backs.

Rob’s damage historical past is well-documented. Udoka will probably need to handle his minutes to an extent to maintain him near 100% all year long.

Consequently, the Celtics ought to make the most of small-ball lineups greater than final season.

That’s excellent news for Pritchard. Brogdon and White ought to see loads of minutes at taking pictures guard and even small ahead, which is able to open up alternatives for Payton to play at level guard.

All of that mentioned, this can be a very optimistic evaluation of Boston’s recreation plan for subsequent season with Pritchard in thoughts. Realistically, he received’t play greater than 12 minutes an evening.

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May he be traded?

After the Celtics acquired Brogdon, I puzzled if Pritchard would request a commerce. In spite of everything, he has a proper to be pissed off with the state of affairs.

Payton didn’t do something mistaken to deserve the demotion he’ll obtain with Brogdon’s addition to the squad. It’s simply part of the enterprise. Stevens had the chance so as to add a particularly gifted participant with out giving up a lot in return and he took benefit of it, as would any sensible President of Basketball Operations in his place.

With a number of open roster spots and a transparent want for a backup heart, Pritchard may not even must request a commerce to discover a new residence over the subsequent few weeks. The unhappy fact is that he’s not a mandatory piece for the Celtics as they make a push for Banner 18.

If Stevens can make the most of Pritchard as a invaluable piece to herald one other gifted large man, he would possibly pull the set off.

That being mentioned, he’s nonetheless younger and has proven indicators of enchancment in every season. Accidents occur, and there’s a path for him to carve out a task in Boston’s rotation, albeit a slim one.

Proper now, Pritchard as soon as once more finds himself in no man’s land.