🚨MAJOR Payton Pritchard Update | Boston Celtics News

🚨MAJOR Payton Pritchard Update | Boston Celtics News

[Music] With each passing day, we’re learning more and more about what the 2025 2026 Boston Celtics are going to look like. And on today’s show, we have a major Payton Pritchard update on what his role could be for this upcoming campaign. We’ll get into that in just a moment. But if you guys want to continue the conversation around Boston Celtics basketball, why don’t you hit me up on Twitter or X or whatever you want to call it. My handle smitty@cs. And I wanted to give you guys a little bit of an incentive on today’s show. The next people, the next five people that give me a follow over on Twitter, you’ll get a shout out, personalized shout out on the next show that we do here at Selics today. So, give me a follow if you want to keep the hoops talk rolling over on Axe. Let’s get right into this update from NBA insider Grant Ath on Payton Pritchard. and he says that the Boston Celtics appear poised to elevate Payton Pritchard into the starting lineup while using Anthony Simons as a high-scoring option off of the bench for the 202526 season if he remains on the roster. According to sources, the Celtics believe Pritchard has earned the starting job through years of steady development. His familiarity with the system and readiness to handle expanded responsibilities have made him the preferred option to open games at point guard. And look, I’m just going to clap it up for Peyton Pritchard, man. Like, this is a success story. Somebody was taken at the end of the first round. Those guys aren’t always guaranteed true rotation spots in this league, and Pritchard put his head down, grinded, and now he gets the job of starting point guard for the Boston Celtics. He has earned the right. This isn’t something that you go out there and deserve. Peyton Pritchard is an undersized guard. He’s a player who has his best skill set probably is scoring the basketball, and that doesn’t always result in you getting rewarded in your NBA career, especially at this point in time. teams prioritize size, length, two-way ability. But Peyton Pritchard is a player that, yeah, he might not be the best overall defender, you know, skill-wise, tangible wise, but he’s going to give you 110% effort every single time he steps on the basketball court. And he’s only gotten better every single season that he’s been in the NBA. Yeah, he’s had some rotation issues and jostling around in in Joe Mazula’s rotation since he’s become the head coach, but over the past two seasons, he has been an integral part of what Boston has done. He’s been incredibly available as well. 80 plus games played in each of the past two seasons and we know how integral he was in the Celtics championship run. Now this past season he goes out there and wins sixman of the year while shooting the three ball at a 41% clip completely elevating his game to be one of the better scorers at the guard position in this league. And then if you look at what he’s going to do when the lights get brightest for Peyton Pcher when he sees it the biggest opportunities in his NBA career he absolutely steps up to the plate exceeds all expectations to be honest with you. These are his last 10 starts dating back to the beginning of 2023 when the calendar flipped to 2023. And in that season, by the way, Peyton Pritchard had already seen like so many DNPs and and and uncertainty in the rotation and just inconsistencies with his playing time, he still went out there and had a 30-point game during that season. And in the eight starts since that campaign, in the two years he’s been a real big rotation piece for Boston. He’s averaging like 23 points a game, six rebounds, eight and a half assists. Like we all know how lethal Peyton Pritchard during the last week of the NBA season is when teams start rest uh start resting their stars. He also has done this at a crazy high efficiency. 52% from the field, 42% from three-point range on nine attempts as a starter. I think Peyton Pritchard has shown us all that he deserves this spot just based on the production that he’s given us when that opportunity has arisen. And he’s always a guy who is in the right spots at the right times. Like like I said, he’s an undersized guard. He’s not always going to be the best overall defender or he’s going to be a player that teams hunt pretty frequently from uh on that end of the floor, but how often do we see Peyton Pritchard just be on the low block, crashing the offensive glass, and oh, look at that. The rebound just drops right in front of him. Easy two points back up on the board. Like, he just always seems to be in the right spots, always making the right extra pass, never going to try to be something that he’s not. like he’s very self-aware and and he’s kind of used that to his strength uh to this point in his career and I’m very very excited to see him get even bigger of an opportunity in a Celtics gap year. He has also been somebody who has been behemant in the fact that this Celtics season is not going to be a gap year. They’re still trying to make the playoffs. They’re still trying to go win a championship because that has been the standard that has been set in Boston at this point. And Peyton Pritchard has been a big big reason why that standard has been the case over the last couple of seasons. So clap it up for him like I did. Show some love to Peyton Pritchard down in the comments section. I didn’t want to flood the comment section with PP. So, get that boy’s number down below. Type 11 for me if you love Peyton Pritchard and you’re excited for him to be the starting point guard of the future for the Boston Celtics because he is under contract for a couple more seasons. Now, remember though, Peyton Pritchard requested a trade back in 2023. Like, we could almost not be in a spot where this is the the reality now. Payton Pritchard could be without a six-man of the year award in his belt and now projected starting job. uh in his future like he was almost not a member of the Boston Celtics anymore because of what I had mentioned previously the inconsistencies in his spot in the rotation his minutes his playing even some nights for a large portion of the 2022 2023 season Pton Pritchard was getting DNPs and we know now that he’s a player that does not deserve those types of marks said this back in March about that situation a couple of seasons ago and he said at the time asking for a trade wasn’t really that hard because I just didn’t see a future I’ve always said this it was nothing to do with the city or the organization. I think the organization is topnotch. I think Boston is the best sports city in the world, the best fans, and the games are always sold out. As a player, you want to play in a situation like that, but at the end of the day, I’d rather be playing, and I wasn’t playing. I was watching a lot of games. But now, we were really good and I was going to be a good teammate regardless of the situation, but I’m a competitor and I thought I belonged on the court to play and play with the best. And so, I went to Brad and just asked if like if there was an opportunity out there where they could get value back and it didn’t end up working. And thank God that it didn’t. And look, Boston had a weird guard rotation back then. They still employed Marcus Smart. They still employed Malcolm Brogden who was on his way to winning sixman of the year for Boston. Plus, obviously Jaylen Brown, Jason Tatum, those those two guys carry a lot of the ball handling duties as well. And you even had Derek White there, too. So, like there was not a lot of room for Payton Pritchard to really find out or or carved that role in that rotation. And that’s unfortunate because he is a really really good player. But even back then in the first couple seasons of his NBA career, like he had some turnover issues. He was still a little, you know, spotty on the basketball court. You couldn’t always rely on him for long stretches. Now that’s just not the case anymore. He is a reliable enough player to where I’m confident in him being the starting guard for the foreseeable future. But Brad Stevens did say this about that whole situation way back when. He said that it was pretty clear that in the summer of 2023 that we should either probably help him find a place to play or make sure that we had space for him to play because he’s a really good player and he’s the kind of guy that you want in your building. He’s an alltime worker. And Brad also concluded his statement with this trade-wise there wasn’t to be honest with you there was nothing even close. Pat Brad Stevens knows that he values Peyton Pritchard and this was also before Peyton Pritchard had signed a big-time contract extension or I guess let’s just say long-term contract extension because the money the dollar signs they were not too big time. We know Payton Pritchard is on one of the best values. I would argue it is the best value contract in the entire NBA. Name me a six-man of the year candidate that’s making $7 million a season over the next few. You can’t. He’s going to be an unrestricted free agent in 2028. So, you still got two more, three more seasons of Peyton Pritchard playing on maybe the greatest deal that’s ever been signed. Brad Stevens continues to be a Wizard, but this is a PP video. Let’s get back to him. He’s still a really, really good player here. And there’s a reason that we’re looking at this contract as one of the best values in the NBA because he’s a really, really good damn basketball player. Now, he talking about him like off the court and how he kind of trickles down to the rest of this Boston Celtics roster as well. Like, I was reading a bunch of the comments from that article when they were talking about Peyton Pritchard’s trade request and all that stuff. Jaylen Brown was like, “He’s an integral part of this team.” Like, “This team is not what it is without Peyton Pritchard.” Ta T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T had similar comments. Um, I believe it was Al Horford had a bunch of comments like he respects the hell out of Peyton Pritchard’s drive and tenacity and just want to get better. Like the his teammates love that he’s a team first guy and they love that he’s just a hard worker and that’s just kind of the identity of the Boston Celtics. I want Peyton Pritchard to be a part of that for a long long time. But what does this mean for the rest of Boston’s roster? We’ll talk about that in just a moment, but make sure you are subscribed to the channel. Join the family here at Celtics Today. We’re 53,000 diehard Celtics fans strong. And when we hear Celtics News, we make videos for you guys here on the channel. So, lock us in. Hit that subscribe button and turn your notifications on as well so you never miss a moment here at Celtics. Today, we’re going to talk about what this means for Anthony Simons because in that Grant Absth quote, it was that Peyton Pritchard is getting elevated into the starting lineup for for Simons to be a high-scoring option off of the bench. We’ll talk about what that means in just a moment. what’s going on in Boston. But first, I got to tell you guys about this sweet, sweet deal. Look, Peyton Pre is going to be on the court for the Celtics. Anthony Simon’s probably going to be on the court for the Celtics. Jason Tatum’s not going to be on the court for the Celtics this upcoming season, but you can get this jersey on sale for the lolo at this link right here, chatports.com/tatom sale. This is the regular Celtics uh association jersey. Like, this is I don’t know why it’s even on as crazy of a sale as it is, but you got to take advantage of the deal. All the sizes are still available. chatports.com/tatomsale. That’s chatports.com/tatom sale one more time and that link is in the comment section and description of today’s video as well. So just go click it and we get a little bit of the proceeds when you guys purchase a jersey as well. So go get yourself a awesome awesome Jason Tatum jersey and support the show today. All righty. So this is what the official projected 2526 rotation looks like at this point. And I should have went with my gut because I showed you guys this graphic a couple of weeks ago and since then I have had Anthony Simons in the starting lineup. I I’m I’m soft. I I should have went with my gut and just guessed that Pritchard was going to end up getting that starting point guard position. But you have Pritchard White in that back court, Jaylen Brown, and then the the front court still has a lot of questions. I got a star next to Chris Buché’s name. I’m not sure if Joe Missoula is going to want to run double bigs to start the season. Maybe Sam Hower somehow gets in that four spot or you play Jaylen Brown as a small ball four, something along those lines. Maybe Xavier Tilman somehow surprised us a lot in camper. Josh May not stands out as well, but that power forward spot is still pretty wide open. It’s presumed that Nimi Escada will be the starting center as well due to all of the, you know, familiarity that he has relative to the other centers that Boston has on its roster in Luca Garza and um Amari Williams who they’re presumably going to sign to a two-way deal here in the next couple of days. Now, is a trade potentially coming though with the Boston Celtics and Anthony Simons? That’s what we’re talking about in this last portion of today’s show with Peyton Pritchard being named the starter. There still has not been an introductory press conference for Anthony Simons. I’m still holding true to that. Like, it is still weird to me that we’ve yet to introduce Anthony Simons with a jersey held up in a number to the media and have him answer questions about his forthcoming season with the Boston Celtics. That is yet to happen yet. And that just means to me that a trade is still possible before the start of the season. Here’s more from Athan than that original quote. He said while his scoring ability in is proven, sources told fastbrejournal.com that Boston entered the offseason focused on shedding salary and has struggled to find a trade partner for Simons’s contract since acquiring him. Regardless, he remains a trade candidate to monitor as he plays out his contract. A 27.1 million deal for one-year expiring contract Anthony Simons is on. There’s a reason that the Celtics are trying to trade him because he is the only player that makes sense to trade that can help the Celtics get underneath the luxury tax line. They have to do that for two seasons in order to get rid of their luxury tax repeater penalties for the next three. So trading Anthony Simons, no matter really how well he plays, is probably in the card for the Boston Celtics here as they have yet to find a market for him. They’re going to probably have to get his stock up during the season. like they’re probably going to have to play him for a good number of minutes here for the first couple of months and then when the trade deadline rolls around like they’re going to have to see what what’s out there marketwise and they might end up getting pennies on the dollar. But that’s what’s going to have to happen. The Celtics are going to up his stock this season in some regard. Like there’s a lot of room for him to go out there and score big buckets. Like he’s the first guard off of the bench. Like he’s going to probably be in that Peyton Pritchard role from last year. And I guess just raw talent-wise, Anthony Simons probably is better than Peyton Pritchard in those areas. So, I I think he’s going to see something around the 17 to 20 points per game mark. And hopefully when February rolls around, you’ll have a couple of suitors lined up uh that that could use a guy like Anthony Simons here to try to make a championship push. So, with that being said, I want to ask you guys, what would you do with Anthony Simons if he plays well this this upcoming season? Because it looks like they’re going to start the year with him on the roster. If you would keep him, maybe sign him to extension, type K down in the comment section. If it’s T, type a T down below if you want to trade Anthony Simons and get closer and closer to that luxury tax line, which I think is the plan for Brad Stevenson Company. We can continue the conversation about it if you guys want to keep talking Celtics hoops over on my Twitter. Remember, the next five followers that I get get a shout out on the next show. I’ll link my Twitter in the description as well, but it’s smitty SCS. We’ll see you guys on the next one. And as always, let’s go SE’s. [Music]

Boston Celtics News Today comes after a new report from NBA Insider Grant Afseth that said the Celtics starting lineup will feature Payton Pritchard as the Celtics point guard, not Anferee Simos who was recently acquired in the Jrue Holiday trade. Celtics roster news will continue to trickle in as there remains true questions about the Celtics frontcourt. Celtics trade rumors will continue to heat up as well now that Simons has been delegated to an off-the-bench role, but Brad Stevens has not found an Anfernee Simons trade that makes sense to this point. Celtics Today host Tyler Smith breaks down all the latest Celtics rumors and news on Payton Pritchard and Anfernee Simons on today’s Boston Celtics YouTube video!

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NBA Insider Grant Afseth On Celtics Starting Lineup:
“The Boston Celtics appear poised to elevate Payton Pritchard into the starting lineup while using Anfernee Simons as a high-scoring option off the bench for the 2025–26 season if he remains on the roster, sources informed FastbreakJournal.com The Celtics believe Pritchard has earned the starting job through years of steady development. His familiarity with the system and readiness to handle expanded responsibilities have made him the preferred option to open games at point guard.”

Payton Pritchard Contract:
– 2024-25: $6.6 MM
– 2025-26: $7.2 MM
– 2026-27: $7.7 MM
– 2027-28: $8.3 MM
– 2028: UFA

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NBA Insider Grant Afseth On Anfernee Simons Trade Rumors:
“While his scoring ability is proven, sources told FastbreakJournal.com that Boston entered the offseason focused on shedding salary and has struggled to find a trade partner for Simons’ contract since acquiring him. Regardless, he remains a trade candidate to monitor as he plays out his contract.”

Check out some of our other Boston Celtics YouTube videos:
– Boston Celtics Roster Plans LEAKED + Celtics Legend SOUNDS OFF On Jaylen Brown | Celtics Rumors https://youtu.be/i6pdSp5seKw
– 🚨🚨The Boston Celtics Just Got MAJOR NEWS https://youtu.be/cLbDMCfwKgk
– 🚨Celtics Make A Roster Move + NEW Celtics Trade Report via NBA Insider | Boston Celtics News https://youtu.be/rLzRlKK8x7c

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– What to do with Anfernee Simons? Type ‘T’ for Trade, ‘K’ for Keep

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