Payton Pritchard’s Playmaking Is Better Than Ever In 2025-26
While Payton Pritchard’s three-point shooting has been off to start the 2025-26 season, his playmaking certainly hasn’t been. The reigning Sixth Man of the Year is averaging a career-best six assists through Boston’s first five games of the season.
Pritchard’s ten assist night on Wednesday in a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers was enough to get Celtic Blog’s Jack Quantrill comparing Pritchard to Steve Nash (only half-jokingly).
“Payton (Steve Nash) Pritchard,” Quantrill wrote. “Perhaps this one is a little bit overzealous, but Payton’s playmaking leapt off the screen against Cleveland last night and is worth taking note of. Prior to this season, Pritchard’s career high in assists per game was 3.5. Against New Orleans earlier in the week, Pritch recorded eight assists, and in the first half alone against the Cavs, he recorded nine!”
“Whilst the three-ball isn’t falling quite yet, all the signs are there to show us that Payton can handle that additional playmaking burden as the roster relies more heavily upon his ball-handling and passing ability,” Quantrill continued.
“Pritchard was pivotal in setting up the first few Hauser shots of the evening, and he laid on decent opportunities for JB in transition, but my favourite pass of the night from PP was a well-timed bounce pass to Sam Hauser cutting from the corner.”
Pritchard is now averaging 14.6 points, 6.0 assists and 5.2 rebounds for the Celtics through five games. Boston will take on the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday at the Xfinity Mobile Arena. It is the Celtics’ first NBA Cup Group Stage game of the season.