“Peyton is just a guy that I’ve been attracted to the way he plays,” explained Boston Celtics team president of the player his team took with the 26th pick of the 2020 NBA draft.
A pick that admittedly caught a number of Celtics fans off guard, but not a bad one by a mile.
The 6-foot-2, 190 lb. 22-year old floor general is a lights-out shot from beyond the arc, hitting 41.5% of his shots from 3-point range in his senior season with the Oregon Ducks.
An Oregonian himself, Ainge has seen a lot of the sharpshooting floor general in his four seasons with the Ducks.
Danny Ainge says we got two “terrific shooters” in Aaron Nesmith and Payton Pritchard: “We were just trying to take the best players available and we felt like we got two really good players – great people, mature kids.”
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) November 19, 2020
“[Pritchard] brings a great intensity, even as a freshman, watching his development into a senior year where he had to carry much more of an offensive load,” offered Ainge after the 2020 draft concluded.
“He’s a guy I think that can play in any system.”
“He can play with any players. I love how he pushes pace; he’ll make the other guys run. He’s playing with the ball in his hands, he gets the ball up the court very quickly and and I think that’ll be a help to get the rest of the players up the court very quickly. He has that leadership ability with the ball in his hands.”
“He’s a he’s a fun player and I’m very excited to get him,” added the Celtics president.
Celtics select Payton Pritchard at No. 26. Pritchard, the Pac-12 POY, averaged 20.5 PPG, 5.5 APG, 4.3 RPG and 1.5 SPG for Oregon last season while earning both the Lute Olson Award (nation's most outstanding non-freshman) and the Bob Cousy Award (nation's top point guard).
— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) November 19, 2020
Pritchard is a vocal point guard who pushes the pace relentlessly, a good-if-not-great playmaker who may not gamble but also rarely turns the ball over as a result.
He’s also a decent defender for his size, and though he isn’t especially athletic, he makes up for it with his constant attack-style of play.
That style of play made him a winner in high school, where he took down future teammate Jaylen Brown’s Wheeler High according to Forbes Sports, and winning four consecutive state titles on his way to Oregon.
Brad Stevens says Nesmith and Pritchard will "compete for time, but also add value to winning sooner rather than later." He described them as "gym rats."
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) November 19, 2020
There, the Oregonian earned PAC-12 Player of the Year honors and a Consensus First Team All-American nod as a National Player of the Year candidate.
He also won Silver with the U.S. in the 2017 FIBA Under 19 World Championship.
He shot half-court jump shots in the 91st percentile of NCAA athletes, and scored 0.96 points per possession in the pick and roll, good for the 89th percentile according to the NBA.
Pritchard averaged 20.5 points and 5.5 assists last year at Oregon. Hit 41.5 percent from deep on pretty high volume. https://t.co/qUNHkeWfjs
— Jay King (@ByJayKing) November 19, 2020
According to The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie, Pritchard is “fearless, tough, and … a really awesome backup point guard due to his ability to shoot and lead teams.”
Like the Celtics Wire, he has concerns about his defensive ceiling as a smaller (but not undersized) guard, but sees the pick as “reasonable” given any of the other guards who were available have a similar range of faults and capabilities.
We’re pretty happy with the pick overall, and think Celtics fans will quickly warm up to the floor general once they see him on the court.
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