Payton Pritchard has become a Boston Celtics household name, but that’s not what the 26-year-old envisioned on draft night five years ago.
Pritchard, an undersized prospect from Oregon, sat patiently on draft night as teams made their selections. By the time 25 selections were made, the Celtics were on the clock at No. 26 and chose Pritchard, ending the night with Aaron Nesmith (No. 14), and Yam Mader (No. 47) as the newest members of the team.
“I remember the whole thing,” Pritchard said on “The Young Man and The Three” podcast. “I remember there being a bunch of people around, and I’m just sitting there like every pick goes by, and people are just staring and waiting, and I’m like, ‘I’m just going upstairs. I can’t be around everybody.’ … You’re just sitting there waiting for a call from your agent. And I didn’t even think I was gonna go to Boston ’cause I was looking at their roster too, and I’m like, they’re guard-heavy. They picked two point guards the draft before and I didn’t even work out for them or anything.”
The Celtics selected guards Romeo Langford (No. 14 from Indiana), Carsen Edwards (33rd from Purdue) and Tremont Waters (51st from LSU) with three of their four selections in the 2019 draft. Edwards and Waters fizzled out of the league quickly and Langford was traded for Derrick White to the San Antonio Spurs in 2022.
Kemba Walker was the team’s starting point guard during Pritchard’s rookie season, working in tandem with Marcus Smart. Pritchard sat on the bench alongside veteran guard Jeff Teague and second-year guards Langford, Edwards and Langford.
Pritchard beat out all four of them in total minutes (1,268) played, averaging 7.7 points with 2.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists. Brad Stevens was the head coach at the time and quickly began to recognize Pritchard’s ability to provide a spark with his above-average 3-point shooting — Pritchard shot 41.1% from three as a rookie.
The confident, pesky now-NBA champion the Celtics know today didn’t gain his confident demeanor in Boston. Pritchard, looking back, felt as though the Covid-19 pandemic hindered his stock value in the 2020 draft after averaging 20.5 points, 3.6 rebounds and 5.5 assists as a senior at Oregon.
“I think I definitely would’ve got drafted higher honestly,” Pritchard said, per “The Young Man and the Three” podcast. “Cause I would’ve had the March Madness and the way I was playing, I was ready for that moment. That can boost your stock right there just having good performances and leading your team. And I definitely was gonna duck smoke in pre-draft workouts and I was going to want to go. I only did two individual workouts at that time and that was Toronto (Raptors) and Detroit (Pistons) that came to LA. So I didn’t get that opportunity but, yeah, it still worked out.”
Boston signed Pritchard to a four-year, $30 million extension in 2023.
Now, the five-year veteran is on the hunt as the NBA’s early front-running candidate for the Sixth Man of the Year Award. Pritchard is averaging a career-best 14.8 points, shooting 42% from three 37 games into Boston’s title defense.
