One of the biggest attributes of the Boston Celtics winning their 18th NBA title last Summer was their loaded roster.
This year’s roster looks even better with the stars and key role players performing at a high level. They feel confident in emerging players like point guard Payton Pritchard, who is in his fifth season in the league.
The Boston Celtics are a team that is so talented and deep, they have the keys to making another championship run. As the NBA Trade Deadline continues, media outlets are going to talk about players like Miami Heat guard Jimmy Butler, for teams trying to compete with the current champions.
The Celtics, however, might be better off with Pritchard.
One player who has been in the daily discussion for NBA Trade Deadline talk is Jimmy Butler. He has yet to win a championship despite two NBA Final appearances with the Miami Heat.
The unlikely prospect of the Boston Celtics trading for Jimmy Butler was discussed on the Bill Simmons Podcast along with NBA expert Chris Mannix.
The idea of Boston trading Payton Pritchard for Butler was raised light-heartedly by Celtics fan Simmons -and was shut down. The seriousness of Boston keeping their core is not to be messed with.
Mannix hit back: “The short answer to Pritchard for Butler is no because Boston doesn’t shoot threes.
“Pritchard itself, you have to shoot eight threes a game or be able to. He’s been awesome with the contract he’s on too. You couldn’t do a Butler deal because Butler is making $46 million and Payton is making $8 million.”
Simmons added, on Pritchard: “You can barely put him in any trade. I would say, if you’re doing the best contracts in the league, he’s got to be in the top three, he’s got to be number one.
“He’s sixth man of the year at $7 million bucks and also gives the luxury of ‘Derrick White is a little banged up tonight, we’ll just play Pritchard, he’ll score 29 in the starting spot.
“The ceiling of this regular season Celtics team when everybody is back, I do feel like they have a 16-18 game winning streak in there somewhere before the season ends.”
Pritchard contributes significantly for the Celtics, and has been growing in importance. After being drafted in 2020, last season was the first time he played 82 games in a season.
This season, Pritchard took two big steps forward in a loaded Celtics roster. In 26 games this season, Pritchard is scoring an average of 16.5 points per game on a field-goal percentage of 48.5% and a three-point percentage of 43.5%. He is also averaging 3.3 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game.
He is having a monster December by averaging 18.9 points in seven games played. In the Celtics’ 138-129 road win over the Chicago Bears, Pritchard scored a season-high 29 points shooting 10-of-16 in field goals and 7-of-11 from the three-point arc.
Pritchard is providing explosive shooting and reliability to create shots, also playing well in clutch time all at a cheap value. He is in the first year of a four-year; $30 million deal. This is incredible value for a player, who might become a full-time starter.
Related Posts
