Boston Celtics: Payton Pritchard headlines B/R’s early-season surprises

Despite their struggles — be it the injury bug, lackadaisical frontcourt rotation, underwhelming losses — the Boston Celtics still find themselves in the upper echelon of teams in the Eastern Conference standings.

Through 20 games, they boast a record of 11-9, placing them in the fourth seed in the east and eighth in the entire league.

As time goes by, we at the Houdini expect Boston to continue growing as a unit and, in turn, begin to rise up further in the rankings as they try to beat the Los Angeles Lakers to the punch by winning their 18th championship banner.

Even though we believe Danny Ainge and co. should strongly consider making some moves — particularly with the historic TPE — in an effort to better position themselves for such a run, this should not mitigate the impressive play and pleasant surprises that have graced the C’s rotation during the early stages of 2020-21.

The Boston Celtics have had quite a few early-season surprises

Recently, Bleacher Report went about and pinpointed 3 specific early-season surprises from this Boston Celtics team and, writer Zach Buckley believes they are:

1. Jaylen Brown‘s Superstar Ascension
2. Marcus Smart‘s Distributing
3. Payton Pritchard‘s Early Impact

Of these three, we at HH believe the biggest surprise thus far has been the play of Payton Pritchard, whom our very own Nathanael Rutherford believes could wind up being the steal of the 2020 NBA Draft.

Before going down with a sprained knee six games ago, the 26th overall pick had carved out a nice role for himself within the rotation and, in 20.9 minutes a game was posting solid averages of 7.7 points, 2.6 assists, 2.4 rebounds, and just under an assist per game on 49 percent shooting from the floor and 43 percent shooting from deep.

In his piece, Buckley made sure to point out the rookie’s efficiency and exceeded expectations as a late first-round talent as his reasons for why he was placed as one of the biggest surprises for the Celtics so far into the season.

"Before being sidelined by a sprained knee, the first-year guard had provided a badly needed backcourt spark for an offense playing without Kemba Walker to start the season and seeing little return on the offseason investment in Jeff Teague. Pritchard didn’t wow with volume—who would in only 20.9 minutes a night?—but his efficiency was off the charts: 48.8 percent shooting overall, 42.5 percent from deep and 90.0 percent at the line.It’s early, so feel free to question the sustainability of this small-sample success. But for a late first-round pick, he’s probably already done enough to exceed expectations."

While Brown’s ascension and Smart’s impressive play as a facilitator are both deserving of their placement, the emergence of Payton Pritchard should easily be seen as the biggest surprise from the first quarter of the 2020-21 campaign.