Boston Celtics’ Payton Pritchard offers a great offensive boost

Payton Pritchard’s first seven games were historic for the Boston Celtics franchise, and his teammates had their meteoric start.

More specifically, however, the Celtics got a needed boost from Pritchard off the bench, with Kemba Walker on the sidelines.

“He had more good nights, for sure, than not,” said Brad Stevens after Pritchard’s 23-point explosion against the Toronto Raptors. “And we’re going to ask him to do a lot now. Fair or unfair to him, he will have to be consistent for us, in order to have the chance to be a good team. “

That responsibility may be more just for Pritchard than other newbies – the Celtics have summoned the 22-year-old veteran in part because of the immediate impact they thought he could bring.

But it does little to minimize how impressive Pritchard’s start was. In a season with only a few weeks between the draft and the season, with no Summer League and a truncated training ground, Pritchard managed to look like an NBA contributor in his first seven games.

More specifically, Pritchard followed Stevens’ preaching: newcomers enter their rotation making the best players on the team better. In recent years, Stevens has adapted his rotations to maximize Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, and Pritchard passes this test with flying colors.

By Cleaning the Glass, the lineups with Tatum and Pritchard surpassed the opponents by 21.6 points per 100 possessions. The sample size is usually small (231 items), but large enough to be interesting in just seven games. The lineups with Pritchard and Brown, in turn, outnumbered their opponents by 14.7 points per 100 possessions. These numbers are somewhat supported by Tatum’s presence (exclude Tatum from those lineups and the Pritchard / Brown lineups have been slightly exceeded), but that is the point that Stevens has repeatedly emphasized – Pritchard’s work is not an offense alone.

Schematically, Pritchard fit perfectly. In its early games, the Celtics used it primarily as a spot-up threat – punching 3 points, some well behind the line and attacking closouts for floaters and mid-range pull-ups. This is valuable alongside Tatum and Brown, but what he did against Toronto was significantly more impressive – he created his own attack.

At some point in the second quarter, Pritchard attacked Pascal Siakam with the dribble, slowed his pace at the edge and retreated just enough to fall on a float over Siakam. In the next possession, Pritchard dislodged Fred VanVleet with a Tatum canvas, then fired at an odd-looking hook 3.6 meters away when he stopped his dribbling. His first basket of the second half was a 3-point step back that shook VanVleet and made the Celtics bench jump and celebrate.

On a night when the Celtics missed Marcus Smart and Jeff Teague, they needed Pritchard to be more than just a surprise threat, and he did it.

“I’m ready for any opportunity that comes my way,” said Pritchard. “That’s when I try to help my team win like we did tonight. And honestly, each night will be a different night, but I will find little ways that can be offensively different, whatever it is to help my team that night. “

Your companions are grateful for your help.

“Dude, Payton doesn’t need anything,” said Grant Williams. “He is a veterinarian. I feel like he’s old enough, he’s a guy who plays at a high level in college. And he also sees the game very, very well. He plays with an intensity and a certain competitiveness that inspires others, and a great credit to him because any newcomer who arrives can be shaken at any time, but for him to enter and lead this team not only in the second unit, but also sometimes , the first unit, shows how much real control he has and how special as a player he is. “