Payton Pritchard could be in line for a career year and a bigger role after the blockbuster Jaylen Brown trade, and the Boston Celtics need to lock him up for the long-term before he makes them pay for it later on.
On a recent episode of the "Hoop Collective" podcast, ESPN's Brian Windhorst mentioned that the Oregon native is eligible for a contract extension this summer. And if he's going to take advantage of an expected boost to his role (i.e., having the ball in his hands more and becoming a more relied-upon scorer), then Boston needs to give him a new contract before he plays himself out of their range.
"Payton Pritchard is extension-eligible, and he is on an extremely attractive contract -- $7.5 (million) this year, $8.5 million next year. ... I expect them, part of this, I think is they're going to boost Payton Pritchard's role even more and build out more for him. So if you think you're going to build an even bigger role for Payton Pritchard, it makes sense to sign him now before he maybe has even a bigger season than he did a year ago," Windhorst said.
Payton Pritchard could be in for a career year next season
Nothing is set in stone yet, but it seems like Pritchard may finally become a full-time starter in Boston. With Brown no longer in the mix (and Paul George pretty much guaranteed to sit out for half of the season at this point in his career), the Celtics are going to need a scoring boost in the lineup to take some pressure off of Jayson Tatum.
And even though he's excelled as a bench scorer (even winning the Sixth Man of the Year award for the 2024-25 season), Pritchard can turn it up another level with more opportunities and a higher usage rate.
In 50 games as a starter last season, Pritchard averaged 16.9 points, 5.3 assists, and 4.3 rebounds on 45.6/34.8/86.7% shooting splits.
The 28-year-old can put the ball in the basket. That's never even been a question with him. He has the confidence to go head-to-head against some of the best defenders in the game, and his shiftiness has always made him a legitimate scoring threat anywhere on the court.
Pritchard has his problems with inconsistency (he had a 32-point performance in Game 4 against the Philadelphia 76ers last season, but he also had a four-point performance in Game 2), and he can sometimes struggle when he's asked to do too much. But now that he should have an opportunity to play through that and figure things out, there's a lot to be excited about.
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