Payton Pritchard drops NBA legends he played in high school

The Boston Celtics have a lot of expensive contracts on the books for the next few years. Jayson Tatum will earn $313 million in five years. Jaylen Brown will earn $285.3 million over the five years of his contract. Jrue Holiday has $134.4 million over four years. Derrick White also receives $118 million over four seasons.

As you can see, the Celtics have plenty of big contracts. These expensive contracts make it very difficult for Boston to get deals done this season, as they are a team above the second apron of the luxury tax. This means they have to rely heavily on the people they already have.

One contract that isn’t expensive and is honestly a bargain is Payton Pritchard’s contract. He makes just $30 million in four years. He was by far their best player off the bench, scoring 15.3 points per game and shooting 41% from three.

Perhaps one of the reasons Pritchard was so good is because of the players he played against in high school. He played against one of the most underrated guards in the NBA.

“You know, when I was growing up, when I was in my sophomore year of high school, Steve Blake was still in the league and lived in my hometown. So we played one against one every day. So honestly, probably took things from him.

Pritchard is one of the best backup players in the league. The Celtics also consider him to be a future starter once Holiday decides to either move to another team or retire. The only thing Pritchard needs to improve on is his passing, something the team doesn’t ask him to do often right now.

The Celtics are currently in a bit of a slump. Boston has lost three of its last four games, which hasn’t happened since the 2022-23 regular season. This is the first time in a while that the Celtics have faced some adversity this season.

How the team responds will determine which seed they end up with in the East. Boston is four games behind the Cavs for the top seed in the Eastern Conference. Pritchard will be a big reason if they manage to catch her.

More Celtics news: Al Horford says the Celtics need to “relax” during tough times.