Jaylen Brown’s departure opens the door a little wider for Payton Pritchard, and the Celtics guard sounds ready to walk through it.
Boston has already seen what Pritchard can do in a sixth-man role, but this season could ask for more. Maybe a lot more.
There’s been some buzz about whether he can grow into something like the Celtics’ version of Jalen Brunson, though that kind of leap would be an unfair standard. No one is putting Finals MVP expectations on him.
Still, the sense around him is hard to ignore: he looks set up for a career year.
The former Oregon Duck should start for Boston. Even if he doesn’t, there’s a real path to him finishing as the team’s second-leading scorer.
At Celtics Media Day, the soon-to-be seventh-year guard laid out the areas where he believes the biggest jump can happen. For Pritchard, growth starts with efficiency.
He’s coming off a season in which he hit nearly 38 percent of his 7.1 three-point attempts per game. Keeping that volume while nudging the percentage higher would be a tough ask, but it’s not out of reach.
And even with 55.6 percent shooting on twos, there’s still room to push his overall field-goal mark above last season’s 46.4 percent.
That won’t come without tradeoffs. One way to create more efficient scoring would be to get more isolation chances, and Pritchard was already one of the league’s better iso scorers last season. Per NBA Stats, he turned those possessions into the third-most points per possession among players who met the minimum of 60 games and at least one such shot attempt per game.
He used quickness, tight handles, contact balance, and craft to make things happen, and that showed up in the paint, where he produced 5.9 points per tilt last season. If those opportunities rise, his field-goal percentage might not follow in lockstep. But he can still become a more efficient scorer.
Another clear area he wants to attack: the free-throw line. Pritchard has spent the offseason studying how some of the best at the craft manufacture trips to the stripe. Foul-baiting may not be pretty, but it works, and he sees it as a practical way to raise his production after averaging 17.0 points per game last season.
That matters even more because he’s nearly automatic when he gets there. The 28-year-old is a close to 90 percent free-throw shooter, but he’s doing it on fewer than 1.0 attempts per game. That’s obvious room for growth.
Pritchard also wants more playmaking responsibility. He’s long been known first for scoring, but he averaged 5.2 assists in the 2025-26 campaign, and with the ball in his hands more often, that number could climb too.
There’s a leadership piece here as well. The Oregon native spent the summer in Boston, where he’s made his home, and when the younger players arrived, he was already in place.
His work ethic already sets a tone. Now he wants to become more vocal, too.
That matters even more now that he’s the second-longest-tenured Celtic on the roster. With Brown gone, the fit feels natural. And it’s another sign that while this year’s Pritchard may look a lot like last year’s, there’s still plenty of room for him to rise.
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