{"id":10103,"date":"2024-11-22T06:39:11","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T06:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=10103"},"modified":"2024-11-22T06:39:11","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T06:39:11","slug":"celtics-payton-pritchard-earning-spotlight-im-a-confident-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=10103","title":{"rendered":"Celtics\u2019 Payton Pritchard Earning Spotlight: \u2018I\u2019m a Confident Person\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-2181624988-e1732200360853.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-2181624988-e1732200360853.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-2181624988-e1732200360853.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-2181624988-e1732200360853.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Celtics' Payton Pritchard Earning Spotlight: 'I'm a Confident Person'\" width=\"780\" height=\"438\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Getty Celtics guard Payton Pritchard<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>BOSTON \u2014 What you see in Celtics guard Payton Pritchard is 30 yards of confidence packed into a 6-foot-1 frame.<\/p>\n<p>What you don\u2019t see are the hours and years of work that transformed that belief from a Lilliputian\u2019s delusion into an NBA champion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you put the work in,\u201d he says, \u201cyou\u2019ll have a belief in yourself that, no matter the situation, you can accomplish what you need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is special in that way,\u201d says Celtics assistant coach\/director of player development Craig Luschenat. \u201cEach guy has his own loads they get to quicker than others, but he has a much larger tank than most guys. So, yeah, he\u2019s special. He\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What you see is Pritchard on Tuesday night against the Cavs saving an errant Jayson Tatum pass from going out of bounds, then driving Craig Porter Jr. to the lane, faking him out of the way and lofting in a shot over the 7-foot-freakin\u2019-1 Evan Mobley.<\/p>\n<p>What you don\u2019t see are the extra practice sessions designed to be far more difficult than just getting up shots.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of live reads \u2014 playing off close-outs, playing off pin-downs. It\u2019s not just catch-and-shoot,\u201d Pritchard tells Heavy Sports of the training often done with teammate Sam Hauser. \u201cSometimes there\u2019ll be three coaches at a time guarding us, coming off a pick and roll, stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Payton Pritchard: \u2018You Can\u2019t Second-Guess It\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>At his size, the additional millisecond of quickness that comes from ultra-confidence is critical in getting off his shot \u2014 particularly when venturing into the painted forest to challenge the league\u2019s redwoods. While that\u2019s been important, as well, in him becoming one of the NBA\u2019s best 3-point shooters, the lack of doubt is an even greater issue inside. Belief must be placed on the internal computer chip.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, you definitely can\u2019t second-guess it,\u201d Pritchard says. \u201cBeing limited in size, you\u2019ve got to be decisive and confident in what you\u2019re about to do. You\u2019ve got to rock with it, whatever that decision is.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not thinking about it. Everything happens instinctively.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And he ascribes to the theory of \u201cearned confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThrough the work,\u201d Pritchard says. \u201cFor sure. I\u2019m a big believer in that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But how much of his mind game is factory issue? Jon Niednagel, the so-called brain doctor who used to work with the Celtics, once said Larry Bird and Michael Jordan had similar brain types as serial killers.<\/p>\n<p>Pritchard would seem to fit\u2026 at least in terms of the borderline obsessive competitiveness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel I\u2019m a confident person in general,\u201d says Pritchard, who has no compunction over pulling up from 28 feet to launch a trey (his end of quarter stuff from midcourt and beyond is another story in itself). \u201cBut I\u2019m definitely confident just because of the work that I\u2019ve put in. You know, once you put in so many hours, you\u2019re always going to have a belief in yourself that you can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Celtics Teammates Give Respect<\/h2>\n<p>Sitting beside him in the Celtic locker room, Al Horford breaks into a laugh.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is who you are, P. You ain\u2019t gotta lie about it,\u201d he says through a smile. \u201cThat\u2019s who he is. It\u2019s just like riding a bike. That\u2019s who he is. He\u2019s nice like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Horford is essentially saying his friend is a little nuts \u2014 but he\u2019s doing it in a loving and nurturing way.<\/p>\n<p>Pritchard understands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, I knew I had it from a young age,\u201d he says of growing up in Oregon. \u201cI think my parents knew I had it. They knew I was probably a little bit, um \u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt a young age, I was in the cul de sac taking the worst kids in our neighborhood and trying to beat the best kids. My parents used to laugh about it, but I feel like it was always there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The desire to embrace the difficult has been key to his development. In his fifth season, he\u2019s become the Celts\u2019 fourth leading scorer (15.3 ppg) and is getting Sixth Man Award buzz.<\/p>\n<p>In the summer, Pritchard will get up 300 to 500 reps most days. In season, it\u2019s 20-30 minutes of intensity. It fits both his personality and Luschenat\u2019s philosophy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a big believer in making it as hard as possible, as much failure as possible,\u201d Luschenat says. \u201cI try to make him fail as much as he can during workouts. Every shot he takes is game rep.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you\u2019re young, there\u2019s a foundation of skill you need to grow; once you\u2019re out of that foundation, the way I believe you grow on that is by failing and then self-correcting and self-organizing. He does a great job of buying into that and wants to be challenged every day. Our workouts are 20-30 minutes, depending on the day, but they\u2019re going to be very hard, and he does a great job of going as hard as anybody.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI say it all the time: make practice harder than the game. We try to make his practices as hard as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Learning From the Best<\/h2>\n<p>It helps, too, that Pritchard has studied the workout habits of the game\u2019s greatest shooters. (We wrote in January of 2023 about Steph Curry\u2019s diligent approach.)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s different ways, but what I see is that it\u2019s the consistency of the work that builds the confidence,\u201d he says. \u201cYou get it in every day, and through that the confidence builds. It\u2019s compounding a little every day, then over a week and a month and a year, that adds up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luschenat very much agrees with building the investment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that\u2019s a very vital component, going into any game believing you put in the work and you\u2019ve taken all these shots a million times,\u201d the assistant coach says. \u201cNow it\u2019s time to have no conscience and just let it rip.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Horford and the rest of the Celtics know, you don\u2019t have to tell Payton Pritchard twice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Celtics guard Payton Pritchard is garnering more and more attention as his hard work pays off on the floor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - 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