Payton Pritchard Striving To Make ‘Jump’ With Celtics In 2024-25

Payton Pritchard experienced a complete 180 turn last season with the Boston Celtics, which ended with a celebratory Banner 18 duck boat parade in June.

It began when Pritchard and the Celtics agreed on a four-year, $30 million contract weeks ahead of Opening Night. Boston stood by Pritchard after the undersized guard logged a career-low 13.4 minutes as the afterthought of the team's reserve unit in 2022-23, and it paid off tremendously. Pritchard appeared in each of Boston's 82 games in the regular season, averaging a career-high in points (9.6), rebounds (3.2), assists (3.4) and shooting from the field (46.8%) while also logging a Celtics-best assist-to-turnover ratio (4.6). Yet, the 26-year-old isn't content heading into the upcoming season.

"Obviously, I'm already working this summer," Pritchard told Evan Turner on the "Point Forward" podcast. "... I'm trying to make a jump. I think for me, I've always been a person that's never been a goal setter trying to win these awards or anything like that because that's out of my control. For me, if I can make a jump in certain areas, offensively and become even more efficient in different parts of the game. My coaches have talked about it, being able to shoot off the dribble at a higher clip -- like step-backs and stuff."

Pritchard's minutes took a slight decline in the postseason, averaging 18.7 as opposed to 22.3 in the regular season, however, the Oregon product still found ways to contribute. In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, Pritchard buried a deep buzzer-beating three to give the Celtics a 92-77 lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers to begin the fourth quarter. In Game 5 of the NBA Finals -- the series clincher -- Pritchard sunk a half-court buzzer-beater to end the first half against the Dallas Mavericks, which shifted the momentum Boston's way en route to its record-setting 18th title.

It was undeniably Pritchard's best NBA season to date, and for more reasons than one, but that isn't stopping him from uncovering new ways to improve or take inspiration from a few fellow guards from Boston's championship roster.

"Defensively, just figuring out a way to even make more of a impact as far as kind of being more of a pest, even though I am on-ball," Pritchard explained to Turner. "But learning how to take charges at a higher rate. Some of that stuff goes down to watching film and I also got two dudes who do it in their own right in (Jrue Holiday and Derrick White). For me, that's the standard. That's the standard I'm trying to get to."