Payton Pritchard plays for one of the best teams in the NBA and is very thankful for the success he’s found, but there is an overlooked challenge.
At 27-10, the Boston Celtics are not the best team in the Eastern Conference, but they are still expected to make the NBA Finals, favored over the first-place Cleveland Cavaliers.
Boston enjoys the second-best offensive rating and eighth-best defensive rating in the league, and even their role players offer high-quality play. While the team is certainly led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, on any given night a different player can leave his mark on the game.
Fifth-year guard Payton Pritchard is a favorite to win the Sixth Man of the Year award, but he is well aware that being on one of the very best teams in the league comes with challenges.
Pritchard wants to to play more
Prichard plays a big role on Boston’s offense, shooting 42% from 3-point range this season to average 14.8 points per game. He is yet to start a game for Boston this season but is often the first player off the bench.
In his four seasons at the University of Oregon, he started all but four games and was an All-American in his senior year. The transition from going to NCAA superstar to NBA role player took some adjusting, and Pritchard isn’t shy about that.
“A lot of different guys can close,” said Payton Prichard on The Young Man and the Three podcast.
“It’s trusting in that, and at the end of the day it’s Joe’s [Mazzulla] decision. As far as personally, I don’t look game-to-game but I’m always trying to find ways to keep getting better and better.
Pritchard making the most of his minutes
Any competitive basketball player would tell you that they want to play more, and Prichard is aware that he could have success with more minutes, but Mazzulla and the Celtics seem to have a winning formula.
“The minutes I do get, I have to take advantage and play as well as I can to help the team,” he finished.
The question has to be asked: would Pritchard rather be a role player on the best team in the league or a shot-chucker on a bad team that puts up gaudy numbers but doesn’t ever make the postseason?
He certainly has the skill set to be a bigger fixture on a team’s offense, but the Celtics, famously, put all of their players in positions to succeed.
