{"id":39609,"date":"2025-03-05T01:49:40","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T01:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=39609"},"modified":"2025-03-05T01:49:40","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T01:49:40","slug":"celtics-payton-pritchard-was-instrumental-in-boston-signing-latest-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=39609","title":{"rendered":"Celtics&#8217; Payton Pritchard Was Instrumental in Boston Signing Latest Player"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,w_5028,h_2828,x_0,y_0\/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/ImagnImages\/mmsport\/inside_the_celtics\/01jnh9tpdv41904erc3s.jpg\" alt=\"Feb 26, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA;  Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard (11) dribbles in the first half against the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images\" \/><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<div class=\"tagStyle_1bmarg5-o_O-style_gt0nzj-o_O-sidesPadding_1kaga1a\">\n<div>How the Boston sixth man helped his team&#8217;s front office.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p data-mm-id=\"_p5400fdl3\">Boston Celtics sixth man point guard Payton Pritchard may have played an outsized role in abetting his team&#8217;s front office, led by team president Brad Stevens, when it came to its latest move.<\/p>\n<p data-mm-id=\"_m2x5sei2v\">Per Noa Dalzell of SB Nation, championship Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla recently explained Boston&#8217;s decision to ink 24-year-old power forward Miles Norris to a new two-way contract. Mazzulla did cite Norris&#8217; one year of overlap at Oregon with Pritchard as being critical to getting him into the Celtics&#8217; crosshairs.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Joe Mazzulla on why the Celtics signed Miles Norris: <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis length, his athleticism, he\u2019s shown a decent ability to shoot the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also adds that he\u2019s someone Payton Pritchard vouched for as they were college teammates <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xfrVsPUb7W\">pic.twitter.com\/xfrVsPUb7W<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Noa Dalzell \ud83c\udfc0 (@NoaDalzell) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NoaDalzell\/status\/1896975776739967138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 4, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p data-mm-id=\"_gy370fxaw\">\u201cHis length, his athleticism, he\u2019s shown a decent ability to shoot the ball,\u201d Mazzulla offered of the Celtics&#8217; interest in bringing Norris into their organization. &#8220;He showed a decent ability to shoot the basketball.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-mm-id=\"_6gysg9e9j\">The 6-foot-10 big man played in Oregon during his 2018-19 true freshman season, then suited up for City College of San Francisco in 2019-20.<\/p>\n<p data-mm-id=\"_mrftshq7f\">More Boston Celtics: NBA Insider Considers Celtics vs West Powerhouse the Ideal Finals Matchup<\/p>\n<p data-mm-id=\"_030jbhach\">Norris wrapped up his NCAA career with UC Santa Barbara from 2020-23, but went undrafted that subsequent summer. He has since suited up for the College Park Skyhawks and Memphis Hustle, the G League affiliates of the Atlanta Hawks and Memphis Grizzlies, plus Turkish club \u00c7a\u011fda\u015f Bodrumspor.<\/p>\n<p data-mm-id=\"_dqye1glb5\">&#8220;He played with Payton one year in Oregon so we already knew about him,&#8221; Mazzulla said. &#8220;If you know guys that know other guys and that can vouch for them, how they are \u2014 especially in the locker room [and] outside of the court \u2014 that definitely helps.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-mm-id=\"_8u8k1uzc7\">More Boston Celtics: New Patriots Coach Mike Vrabel Appears at Celtics Practice After Special Invite from Joe Mazzulla<\/p>\n<p data-mm-id=\"_ug5kdwmgt\">As a two-way player on a reigning champion, Norris will be toggled between Boston and its NBAGL affiliate, the Maine Celtics, but seems unlikely to have a major role on Boston proper \u2014 at least this year. Whenever Norris does play for Boston this season, he will be making his NBA debut.<\/p>\n<p data-mm-id=\"_mg1a0ukkn\">Clearly, he is a developmental prospect that Stevens, Mazzulla, and unofficial scout Pritchard regard pretty highly.<\/p>\n<p data-mm-id=\"_ub8k7fb81\">In 22 regular season games with the Hustle this year, Norris averaged 17.1 points on .460\/.395\/.864 shooting splits, plus 5.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.7 blocks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boston Celtics sixth man point guard Payton Pritchard may have played an outsized role in abetting his team&#8217;s front office, led by team president Brad Stevens,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":39613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39609","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 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Celtics&#039; 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