In the Boston Celtics season opener, they lost a heartbreaker to the Philadelphia 76ers, a one-point loss in which Payton Pritchard wasn’t able to convert on either of the two game-winning shot attempts
he had. Payton obviously wasn’t happy with the end result, not only for missing the shots, but also for not finding one of his open teammates for a better look.
“Probably just made the wrong read. Anfernee and Sam were open on the backside, so just a pass I gotta make,” Pritchard said when asked about the play after the game.
It seems he took the lesson to heart, and did so quickly. In the opener, Payton had just two assists and as many turnovers. In the four games since then, he’s been averaging 7 assists per game (APG) with only 1 turnover in each.
In last night’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Payton posted the 11th double-double of his career, and just the 8th with assists, the other three coming between points and rebounds. It was a tough shooting night for him, 4-13 from the floor, but his game-high 10 assists kept the offense chugging along in what was frankly a surprising upset of a team that’s widely expected to be at the top of the East again this year.
Last season’s Sixth Man of the Year is now stepping into the starting role for the Celtics, and as such, he has a lot more responsibility when it comes to controlling the flow of the game. Off the bench, Payton essentially had the green light when it came to getting shots up. He was a sparkplug used to generate instant offense.
His light hasn’t become any less green this year, but what might have been considered the right read last year could no longer be considered the best one this year. Not only is he going to be going against the starters much more often now, he’s also going to be on the floor with the Celtics starters more often, and will have to help them get into their flow while trying to find his own as opposed to coming into the game after they’ve already started getting established in the offense.
Defenses will be focusing on him more, especially with the absence of Jayson Tatum, and the losses of Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, and Luke Kornet in the offseason. Shots won’t come as easily for him, and he’s going to need to be able to make the right reads to find the best looks.
It’s a small sample size, but Pritchard has been playing an extra 5.4 minutes per game and seen a 2.5 APG increase from last year with his turnover numbers staying just about the same. He leads the Celtics at 6 APG this season, Derrick White being second on the team at 4.4 APG.
Again, we’re early into the season so we have a small sample size to work with, but Payton’s playmaking leap is certainly something to monitor. The best looks almost always come from ball movement, so having Pritchard step up as a facilitator provides Boston with the opportunity to maintain a high-level offense despite the talent drop-off from last year. As of now, Boston holds the 9th best offensive rating in the league at 118.2. We’ll have to wait to see how long they can maintain that for.
