Boston Celtics: A closer look at rookie standout Payton Pritchard

The Boston Celtics were initially criticized for selecting Payton Pritchard with their 26th pick, but he quickly became a fan favorite. So who is he?

The Boston Celtics‘ first-round pick, Payton Pritchard, has already exceeded almost all expectations. The Oregon legend was relatively overlooked in the draft. Also, being 22 (and turning 23 before Jayson Tatum) does not make you a desirable draft pick, no matter how good you might be. Comparatively, Patrick Williams, the fourth pick in the draft, is 19 years old. But the Celtics needed an NBA ready point guard with Kemba Walker hurt, and Pritchard,  someone who knew how to be a winner, seemed to be the perfect guy to fix the Celtics problem.

Back in high school, Pritchard would wake up at 5:15 AM and dribble until his hands would bleed and then shoot until school started every day. In his freshman year, he was a starter on a state champion team. The next year, the point guard won another title after beating Jaylen Brown; additionally, Pritchard won the division’s player of the year.

Then, as a junior, he and his high school won their third title, and Pritchard was named Oregon player of the year. As a senior, he averaged 23.6 points, 6.8 assists, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.1 steals, winning his fourth title in four years, and once again named Oregon player of the year.

Eventually, Pritchard took his talents to the University of Oregon, where he was just as dominant. “Fast PP,” however, could not get a major role on an Oregon team filled with a plethora of talent. Dillon Brooks, Jordan Bell and Chris Boucher led them to the Final Four when they lost to top-ranked North Carolina.

After that season, many of the team’s top players left, and Pritchard suddenly became a centerpiece of Ducks basketball. But the team did not fit the style of their point guard, who had the job of managing the disarray of players. Pritchard led the team in scoring, but the team only won 23 games and did not make the NCAA tournament.

The next season, Oregon seemed like they would have the same dilemma, great players who could not play well together. Prichard had no outside shooters that could make it easier for him to manipulate the opposing team’s defenses, he did not have any big men to defend the interior, and he did not have many consistent players in general on either side of the ball. The team struggled until Pritchard was able to get a green light to shoot whenever he wanted during the Pac-12 Tournament.

Pritchard helped Oregon win the tournament and get a March Madness bid. The Ducks made it to the Sweet Sixteen, and Pritchard decided to enter the draft after his success. Nevertheless, teams were not impressed enough, with only about half a season of NBA-level play from the junior. Thus, Pritchard immediately took his name out of the draft.

After returning for his senior season, Pritchard impressed anyone who watched Oregon basketball. It was clear Pritchard was both the hardest worker and the best player on one of the best teams in the country. The team was ranked in the AP 25 throughout the whole season, winning the Pac-12 tournament, and Payton Pritchard won All-American honors. Pritchard then entered the draft once again. As a projected second-rounder, he was overjoyed when taken by the Celtics with the 26th pick.

Payton Pritchard is already overachieving for the Boston Celtics

Unlike many of Danny Ainge’s previous selections, most of whom were chosen based on potential, Pritchard had expectations to perform as soon as he entered the NBA. Without Walker, and with no players in return for Hayward, the Boston Celtics had limited playmaking from the guard position.

Smart showed sparks that he could spread the floor in the playoffs, but there were doubts about if he could do it for 82 games along with his all-Defensive defense. And the best free agent the Celtics could sign to fill this void was Jeff Teague, an aging point guard who had begun to lose some of his abilities. So, Pritchard was immediately going to be a core player in the Celtics rotation.

And shown by his game-winner on Wednesday night against the Miami Heat, he is suited to win. And the game prior, on Monday, he scored 23 points in 32 minutes in his first game as the lead ball-handler for the Celtics. On the defensive side, he has 1.2 steals per game in just 22.2 minutes, aggressive on defense while still strong enough to drive in traffic every time on offense. So it is not too much of a precursor to conclude: Payton Pritchard is good, and he could be really good.

Right now, though, in this phantasmagorial season, Payton Pritchard will have more responsibility than most rookies. The Boston Celtics’ Twitter account needed a three tweet thread to write out the injury report, with the team experiencing a virus outbreak, and Pritchard is one of the few players who can play. So it will be interesting to see what he can do in his temporary role as an on-court leader for this Celtics team. But Pritchard looks like he is ready to hold the reigns.