NBA Draft: LaMelo Ball goes first in 2020 NBA Redraft
Point Guard. Philadelphia 76ers. Payton Pritchard. 21. player. 93.
In the 20-30 range of the original 2020 NBA Draft, five teams took ball-handling guards to slot in as backups or even future starters. A season later four of those five will still go in this range, just in a different order, as only Immanual Quickley proved himself to be significantly greater than his draft slot.
Payton Pritchard originally went 26 to the Boston Celtics, and immediately stepped into a rotation spot with Kemba Walker out to start the season. Over the course of the year he played 1,268 minutes, 11th-most in this class, appearing in 66 of 72 games.
His 3-point shot was of immediate use to the Celtics, with Pritchard hitting 41.1 percent of his 3.8 3-pointers per game; per-36 he was taking 7.0 attempts per game. Whether he is best deployed as an off-ball guard capable of attacking closeouts or if that is simply how the Celtics used him, he did not have a lot of reps running the offense on-ball.
Pritchard’s production for a playoff team was immediate, which is why he rose a few slots. The reason he did not rise more is that his upside as a 23 year-old appears to be limited. The Philadelphia 76ers can use guards with shooting ability, and even if he doesn’t become more would be a useful piece for their guard rotation.