‘It’s not a gap year’: Payton Pritchard talks Celtics expectations, starting chance, and more
I wouldn’t be surprised if they make a run to make the playoffs or if they tank next season, the craziest time for me as a fan
This season is truly a win win. Either we make a postseason run or we don’t and the entire narrative around Tatum flips AND we get a good draft pick to add to the current core for super cheap. Barring major injury to one of our core pieces, it’s gonna be really tough for next season to be a negative
Personally.. I think they feel it out. If things click, why not try? If things struggle and injuries.. shut it down.
Yeah Brad fucked us out of a proper tank job before. Danny was actively wanting us to tank and instead we went on a run, ended up with an 8th seed first round exit, and pick 15. Ainge then tried desperately to give up 6 picks to move up from 15 to 9.
We should tank. Brad needs to think about big picture this time. BY FAR our best retooling option is to end up with a top 5 pick. Nothing remotely close. Doesn’t guarantee you a star and it’s certainly possible to pick well with a far less valuable later 1st, but you can also flip the pick for veteran star and at the moment we have zero evidence brad can find gems late in the draft
People are seriously out here convincing themselves that replacing Zingis, holiday, Horford and others with some MLE signing is going to get us back on track. We just got cooked in the 2nd round while healthy with a far better team than we are going to have heading forward. Gotta tank
We just got cooked in the 2nd round while healthy
The only starter healthy at the end of that series was Derrick White. You like to talk out of your ass but I couldn’t let this one slide 😅
I’m impressed you read all of that. I’ve just tuned out larbrd as “old man yells at clouds” chatter
Well you gotta create a situation for a tank, because the players certainly won’t. I don’t know if Brad can strip this roster down any further other than a Derrick White mega Mikal type trade or resting Brown as often as possible.
At this point, there’s value in putting together what you can and seeing what you have in Pritchard as a starter. If he looks legit, then it brings more clarity into next season than a mindless tank job would.
I don’t totally disagree, but it’s very difficult to thread the 1 year tank needle.
I’m optimistic Brad can still do what’s necessary to ruin this team this year and let them bottom out
I just can’t as a fan. I have to make compromises every day in real life, I don’t see a conceivable world in which I’m rooting for my team to lose. To each their own, but this isn’t wrestling. Add in that like you said, there’s no guarantee on any pick at this point, nor are prospects guaranteed. You’re more likely to get an impact player with a top 5 pick, but how many of those hit? JB and JT were #3, but by far have had the best careers of the players that were picked before them. Neither was seen as consensus top 5 picks at the time, even if they were wirh the Celts. How are Simmons, Ingram, Bender, Dunn, Fultz, Ball, Jackson and Fox doing? Fox is by far the best of the rest, but you have maybe him, Ingram and Ball as starters nowadays? A top 5 pick isn’t helping the next season, and may not help much after that. You’re looking at a prospect being a productive player in 2029-30, not 26-27. So then you need to flip, and there are better pieces (such as PP) to do so.
Why did Danny Trade for Isaiah Thomas if he was desperately trying to tank?
He was basically free. He didn’t anticipate that Thomas off the bench and Brad would destroy his tank job.
I mean,when Tatum comes back he and Jaylen and White,plus PP, Hauser are enough to be a 50-55 win team in the East and consistent playoff contenders. Probably not title contenders. But we won a title,so say the worst happens,they win 52 games the next few years, never make it farther than the ECF. Is that so bad. The 90’s Atlanta Braves only won the one title,which was a disappointment, but they were consistently excellent for a decade. Kinda feels like that’s us.
Would I love another title? Sure. But we’ve had such a great run the last near decade,it’s been fun,we got to watch some great players, great teams, we’ve been so lucky and blessed compared to most. I’m not gonna complain about watching a quality 50+ win team the next 3-5 years. And many/most draft picks don’t work out, especially outside the lottery. I’d rather watch next year’s team overachieve,win 45 games (unlikely, sure) and steal a playoff series or two ,than tank,get no enjoyment from watching basketball for a year,all to move up 5-10 spots to grab what might turn into a rotational player. And Jaylen at 29 and White at 31 aren’t gonna be cool with tanking a prime year. Go balls to the wall,let the chips fall where they may.
Here here let’s have some fucking pride.
Exactly! If we’re the Knicks and haven’t won in 55 ish years I’d get the desperation. But it’s house money, you’ve got to win at least one, but when you do, the pressure goes way down. And I don’t think they’re done yet necessarily,Tatum and Brown will still be young enough to attract future FA’s or disgruntled vets ring chasing.
If we stay healthy I think we can absolutely get a mid-seed and be above the play in, at minimum a play in seed, and be a pain in the ass for teams in the playoffs.
If we get hit by the injury bug we could be DEEP into the lottery.
Either way it’s gonna be a fun year having no expectations for the first time since IT was here.
As much as I want the Celtics to tank this is a big opportunity to develop a lot of our bench (Queta, Gonzalez, etc.), figure out if Simons works for our team & to see how well JB plays as the #1 option
The #1 priority imo for this year is experimenting w/ our playstyle; we need to end reliance on the 3ball if imma be real. our entire frontcourt needs to focus on expanding the range of shots they can take & cutting to the basket more. We can have Pritchard, Simons & White handle the 3ball because they’re all elite 3-point shooters but we do not have a single player who shoots an efficient 3p% who can create their own shot at the same time.
Right or wrong,by extending Mazzula they’re all in on small ball 3 point barrage galore. If they weren’t they wouldn’t have extended Joe. I think without Tatum,and with a guy like Simon’s,if anything they’ll lean into the three more, Simons, the one thing he’s great at is scoring,21.1,22.6,19.3 ppg the last three years. Between he,Jaylen,White,PP, Hauser I think the offense will be fine, good, even. All those guys besides Jaylen are good/excellent three point shooters,so I think Jaylen will be doing a lot of ball handling, driving and dishing to those other guys.
Jaylen with the ball is a mixed bag, either something great will happen or the ball will be dribbled off his leg. It’ll be a boom or bust offense IMO, there’s gonna be times they’ll put up 140 and others they’ll struggle breaking 100. If anything without Tatum’s ball handling and ability go to the line they’ll be even more depending on the three. So buckle up and bombs away 😂😬
That and keeping JB as no.1 on offense may be necessary depending on how Tatum is after recovery, whether as a temporary or permanent adjustment.
Tanking should always be a FO/roster decision, not a coaching one- I never want Joe or the players thinking about anything but winning and player development.
If the roster is a play in team or worse, so be it- but Payton’s mentality is the correct one for the team culture.
If the team sucks, we get a good pick and if they are good, it means something went right with the guys we have and is a good sign for next year.
we need to end reliance on the 3ball if imma be real.
Yeah don’t hold your breath on that one. If anything they’re gonna shoot more threes than last year because the defense is gonna suck and winning the 3pt volume battle is gonna be their best shot to win games. Just look at the perimeter guys around JB: White, Pritchard, Simons, Hauser, Scheierman. That’s five A+ shooters. The 3-ball is pretty much all we have.
Yeah seems like 3 point shooting is the only thing we’re going to be good at. Defense is going to be bad, rebounding is going to be atrocious,
Offensive rebounding should be good,at least,Garza is a beast on the offensive boards it’s his biggest strength, like Enes Kanter,Queta is great on the offensive boards too. Defense will be a problem though.
Ha I basically just said the same thing then I saw your post. Three ball is all they have,White and Jaylen are probably the best post players they have. Not ideal considering they’re guards. Get ready for a record breaking amount of three’s.
I’m with you as far as cutting back on 3 point attempts. Simons helps out as far as drives to the basket as well because our guards the past 2 years struggled getting 2 feet in the paint consistently
Nah, shoot the three. Let JB create in space. JB feeds you an open shot? You take it. Otherwise they collapse and that just makes JB’s life harder
Looking at our roster, I can’t disagree more tbh.
2 seasons ago, the 3 ball was a natural by-product of our offence. We drove and posted up and kicked out to the perimeter when we were able to force defences into overcommitting.
Last season, the 3 ball was a product of our championship hangover. We probably got a little too comfortable settling for 3s in a regular season where our primary focus was staying healthy and fresh.
This upcoming season, I think we actually have to push hard on 3 point scoring, because that’s where our talent lies. We don’t have a historically well constructed roster anymore, we have gaps and holes that will limit how we can approach the game.
I think both our offence and defence should be structured around the 3 ball.
One of the really interesting things the 2023-24 Pacers did was concede an unholy amount of 2PA. In a weird way, it let them limit opponents shot quality without actually being a good defensive team (24th in the league).
I think we should try a similar thing. Run a really fast-paced 3-heavy offence and then limit our opponents to “good” shots so they can’t keep up.
It’s not perfect but it could be a path to winning games.
The biggest problem is this; we’ve lost KP & Jrue Holiday, 2 pretty prolific & efficient 3P shooters. Along with this, the Tatum injury & the very clear collapse of the team in Games 1 + 2 against NY & shot selection in general proved there are actually flaws in the Celtics playstyle/system that needs to be changed
I think shot selection is the #1 problem; Tatum takes far too many 3s that are contested and sometimes he can’t even find an open man- thats why we need to cut to the basket.
Also, the bigger problem is that a lot of the teams in our conference & overall in the NBA are driven inside the arc (Orlando, Cleveland, OKC, Denver, NY, etc.) & we cannot defend/structure our defense around the 3ball- we REALLY need a good rim protector/center too.
I think our roster backcourt on 3 pointers is completely fine (Pritchard, White & Simons are high volume 3P shooters who shoot at a fairly efficient rate but cannot create their own shot)
Our frontcourt is weaker than ever & I think thats where we gotta starting cutting to the basket/making more shots inside the arc w/ Brown, Boucher & Queta considering all 3 of them are not the greatest at 3P shooting.
Simons can definitely create his own shot lol he’s gonna prove so many of our fans wrong
I don’t think his shot creation is at an efficient rate at all though
The blazers had terrible spacing he has a better handle and creativity at the rim then our other guards
The Blazers also had terrible shot creation outside of him so he was pretty much the only person defenses needed to close in on. That won’t be as much of an issue around better talent
It’s similar to Tatum.
He draws an unreal amount of gravity, which raises his shot difficulty and lowers his %.
But he’s one of the best shooters we will have had on our team in years.
I couldn’t agree more. Math-ball doesn’t work in the deeper rounds of the playoffs. Joe does need to address that and come up with more creative ways to get high-quality shots. Totally with you there.
But we’re talking about next season. Math-ball may limit your ceiling, but it can also raise your floor. If the Celtics commit to shooting 60+ threes per game next year, they’re gonna win a decent amount of games on variance alone. That’s the best play if they want to maximize their potential with this current roster. The year after is a different story.
It’s a gap year
I hear the Clippers are putting together an old Navy
I’ve seen less talented teams make a whole lot more noise than what people’s expectations of this team are. We won 53 games and finished 1st in the East with Avery Bradley as our 2nd leading scorer
I wish they would take a gap year for a Top 3 pick, but realistically they finish with 35 - 40 wins and go out in the first round or the play in…
Just when I thought my admiration for #PritchPuhlease had culminated… he continues throwing #GrowthMindset at us. I defy any fan to NOT root for this 🦄
You heard me
Of course the players aren’t gonna tank, they are going to play as hard as they can because they need to look beyond this year. Tanking is done more at the top, like Brad might not make that trade that makes them a little better for a playoff push, or he might trade some assets he doesn’t see in his future plans for someone who he see potential in, just might not quite be there yet. It also may just be a let it ride situation and he uses this year to see who fits into their plans going forward, so in the grand scheme of things yes it’s a gap year in that they are not likely to contend for a title without Tatum, but the players are still going to play their asses off because that’s just what they do
https://preview.redd.it/t5kpacdrd7lf1.jpeg?width=1220&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f743a09eb3a474908e8e473aaff5bda5fbf001a3
Anything is possible. It could be a tank year that they win 29 games, or they could win 48 and still even get a second round match up in the playoffs.
I see this as a good sign, it shows the player is staying positive even with a gloomy outlook for next season.
42 wins
That’s my expectation
What’s funny is I will actually watch this year more than the past 2 years.
This team intrigues me. PP starting? Dwhite at the 2? Who’s gonna start at PF. Who’s going to develop most between Hugo Walsh and Baylor?
Look at the speed length and youth on this team. Feel like we’re gonna see A LOT of running.
Celtics aau ball incoming.
There’s a handful of guys that need to basically go from unplayable to key rotation piece for this team to make any real noise and I just don’t see it happening. Tatum will be back but we don’t know what that’s going to look like and if they don’t get any big developments it’s gonna be tough sledding because they’re gonna have to try to manipulate their payroll to acquire some legit options.
To me this season is a season for one of those unplayable guys to become playable next season. All those guys should be getting 20ish mins a game, especially Hugo. Scheriman is awful and I’d say he might even be a bottom 5 player in the whole league. He’s also relatively old to be considered “one of the young guys”. Hopefully Walsh becomes somewhat playable. Queta is absolutely playable right now imo and he will have a good year this season. The main guy that needs to be good is Hugo. They NEED one of these guys to pan out and hopefully it’s him.
Our lack of bigs is going to lose us a lot of games
Of course he is gonna say that.
The Celtics will fly under the radar and make a deep playoff run…. By all rights, the Knicks or cavs should be in the finals but I’m not as convinced
yes, It is
If there is any chance JT can make it back for the playoffs then tanking is an irresponsible choice. The east is so winnable, we could be a six seed playing like Detroit in the first round or something like that and have an “easy” path to the finals. I only want to tank if we know for sure JT is 0% to come back in 2026.
Yea it is
lol
I mean Payton may feel that way but we still aren’t winning more than 40 games.
Ok honey