Payton Pritchard Predicted As One Of Five ‘Breakout’ NBA Players

The Boston Celtics (0-3) are still seeking their first win of the 2025-26 season, but sixth-year guard Payton Pritchard has been racking up the stats thus far.

While Pritchard is off to a cold start shooting the ball with a .400/.182/.750 slash line, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year is also posting career highs in points (15.0), rebounds (6.7) and assists (4.0) per game in the very early goings.

ESPN NBA draft analyst and writer Jeremy Woo tabbed Pritchard as one of his “five breakout NBA players for the 2025-26 season” on Monday.

“Pritchard is another player you can argue already had a breakout season last year after he had career-best numbers across the board and won the Sixth Man Award,” Woo wrote. “He has proved to be one of the league’s top 3-point shooters and a relatively mistake-free player over the past five seasons, becoming increasingly essential for Boston and dramatically outkicking his draft position. There may be more in store.”

The former Oregon product has played in and started all three games this season after making only three starts during the 2024-25 campaign and no more than five starts in a season across his first five years in the league.

“The logic here isn’t complicated,” Woo said. “The absence of Jayson Tatum, out with an Achilles tear, creates a significant scoring vacancy that the Celtics will aggregate by committee to stay competitive. Boston made several cap-centric moves, shedding Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis among others, to avoid the second apron, and repositioned itself moving forward. That makes this a quasi-gap year of sorts, with lowered expectations but a ton of opportunity to be shared.”

Pritchard’s scoring and assist numbers aren’t a surprise, given that he’s been asked to take on a bigger role this year and is currently shattering his career high in minutes played per game (35.7). That figure is tied with All-Star Jaylen Brown for the highest on the team so far, he’s leading the group in assists per contest and is shockingly second in rebounds per tilt.

It’s still early, but at 0-3, Woo wrote on Monday that Boston “will need the best version of Pritchard to maximize their new-look group.”

The Celtics play the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night as part of the 32nd ever “Sports Equinox.”