The Boston Celtics already gave contract extensions to Neemias Queta and Ron Harper Jr., and after recently giving another one to Jordan Walsh, they shouldn't stop there.
If there's only one more thing the Celtics do for the rest of the offseason, it should be to sign Payton Pritchard, who is likely in line for the biggest role of his NBA career yet, to an extension (he becomes extension-eligible on Oct. 1). He is currently on a team-friendly deal (he has two years left on his four-year, $30 million contract), but he has already played himself out of that value and will likely continue to do so.
Given how important the Oregon alum is going to be to the Celtics' success moving forward, they need to lock him up before his cost gets too high.
Payton Pritchard should be in for a career year
With Jaylen Brown no longer on the roster, the Celtics will need to find some more shot creation in the starting lineup to take the pressure off Jayson Tatum. Moving Pritchard into the lineup full-time and increasing his usage and volume might be the easiest fix to that problem.
Pritchard has excelled as a sixth man over the past few seasons, even winning the Sixth Man of the Year award in 2024-25, largely because of his ability to generate offense and get some buckets. He is fantastic as a microwave off the bench, but Boston will need a lot more from him next season.
Maybe the Celtics do opt to just keep him on the bench and rock with a Derrick White-Paul George-Sam Hauser-Tatum-Queta type of lineup to fix what isn't broken, but I think this is a change they need to make. They need to add offensive firepower (especially if George misses 40 games next season... which isn't unlikely at this point), and this is the easiest way to make that happen.
We already saw what Pritchard can do as a starter. In 50 games as a starter last season, he averaged 16.9 points, 5.3 assists, and 4.3 rebounds while shooting 45.6% from the field and 34.8% from deep. There are reasons to think he can do this and some in a bigger role next season. He'll have the ball in his hands a lot more, and he'll have the benefit of having guys like Tatum take some of the attention off of him.
The 28-year-old may be in for a career year next season, and if the Celtics are serious about being contenders moving forward, they're going to need him to take that next step. They have already made some solid investments this summer, and they should continue that trend with Pritchard before it's too late.
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