Still buzzing from yesterday’s overtime thriller over the Raptors?
We get it. After last playoff’s early exit collapse after a 3-1 lead over Philadelphia and then trading Jaylen Brown to the 76ers, it’s been a rough couple of months and weeks. But hey, we’ve got actual games, albeit Summer League, and we’re back!
As our rookies and sophomores continue to tear it up on the Strip, we’ve started to look forward to next season. With a handful of veteran additions, we asked our readers about some big questions
heading into training camp in September: Could Payton Pritchard regain his starting spot for good? Does Mitchell Robinson start over the incumbent Neemias Queta? Would it make sense to make Paul George our next great sixth man?
In fifty games as a starter last season, Pritchard averaged nearly 17 points and five assists. Coming off the bench? Seventeen points and five assists. Outside of a higher shooting percentage from 3 (43% vs. 35%), Pritchard was the picture of consistency for Boston and his role could be the most malleable of the Celtics key rotation players.
Yahoo Sports’ Tom Haberstroh made an early offseason observation that “the Celtics trading Brown is a bet that Pritchard is their in-house version of New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, a diminutive player who didn’t fully show his talents until Luka Dončić was out of the picture.” We got a glimpse of that last year. but with two years left on his team-friendly contract, he’s eligible for a contract extension. A step-up in responsibility could lead to higher production and ultimately, a nice payday for PP.
But maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves. If you’re watching the squad out in Sin City, our friends at FanDuel have the Summer Cs as +4.5 underdogs against the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday.
