Celtics guard Payton Pritchard remained with the team as Thursday’s trade deadline passed, but as his playing time continues to be sporadic, he admitted that he was hoping to be moved to a situation where he could play more regularly.
“I definitely was expecting and hoping [for a trade],” Pritchard told Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. “But you know, I [have to] look at the good things. We’re the best team in the NBA right now and we have a great team with really great players, so for me it’s an opportunity to learn and to keep growing. …It was an emotional day, but you know I’m here and I quickly changed my mind and I’m here to do a job to the best of my ability. For me, my mindset is just to come in every day and keep getting better. The only thing I can do is focus on that.”
With a backcourt loaded with talented players like Marcus Smart, Derrick White and Malcolm Brogdon, coupled with Boston’s two frontcourt stars who also can be primary ball handlers in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Pritchard has found minutes in the rotation hard to come by. The third-year player out of Oregon has played just 12.6 minutes per game this year, down from 14.1 in his second season and 19.2 in his rookie year.
However, even with Boston’s depth at the guard spot, president of basketball operations Brad Stevens had plenty of reason to keep Pritchard around.
“We really value Payton,” Stevens told Brian Scalabrine of NBC Sports Boston. “Like, Payton’s a big, important part of our team. Last year he played tons of minutes in the playoff run and guys like that aren’t everywhere. We’re just in a unique position and Payton knows that. And Payton’s been really upfront about that. He knows that the guards we have on our team and the wings that we play sometimes as points are really, really good. And so, there’s going to be nights like tonight where guys are out that he’s going to get extended opportunity. There’s going to be nights where he doesn’t.
“But the one thing we all know is he can go in a playoff game and change it. So when you’re a young player, it’s tough because you want to prove yourself and prove you belong. He’s done that. Everybody in the league knows he can play. We really know he can play. He’s not in an easy situation, especially when you’re 25, but he’s really appreciated here.”
The Celtics will hope that keeping Pritchard around will help them long term, even if the guard may wish he was plying his trade elsewhere for the rest of the season.
