The Boston Celtics find themselves in complete and utter disarray.
Now, this is never a good description to have if you’re an NBA ball club, but it’s even worse when there’s just nine games remaining on the regular-season schedule and, at one point, you legitimately believed you were a potential contender.
Coming into the year, the Cs were viewed by Vegas as having the fourth-best odds of winning it all come season’s end and, based on where they left things off in 2019-20 — two games away from reaching the Finals — coupled with their star power found within the rotation, these projections made sense at the time.
However, a lot has changed in six months for the franchise and, now, they find themselves barely hanging onto the sixth seed out in the Eastern Conference standings with a record of 33-30.
Though the major catalyst for their demise this season has been a lack of health throughout the roster, many are anticipating that the team’s core itself (outside of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown) could be in line for a makeover, with some predicting Danny Ainge and co. will be quite active come the offseason.
Perhaps the first domino to fall this offseason, should they wind up making moves, will be the offloading of the oft-injured Kemba Walker and the remaining two-year of his $141 million contract.
Obviously, should they part ways with their starting point guard, Boston will need to find a replacement to serve in the role.
Though the team’s salary cap situation is less than ideal (to put it lightly) heading into the offseason, we at HH believes there are 2 cheap options the Cs could target for a replacement at the starting one:
Potential Boston Celtics starting point guard No. 1) Payton Pritchard
Starting off our list, we see a cheap potential option that’s currently employed by the Boston Celtics in rookie point guard, Payton Pritchard.
Selected 26th overall back in November’s draft, many aside from Damian Lillard were unfamiliar with the point guard despite his impressive four-year stint at Oregon. Now, fast-forward five months later, and you’ll find that the 2020 Bob Cousy Award winner is a household name amongst Cs fans, for, during his short stint, he’s proven worthy of being considered close to an “untouchable” commodity.
Through 57 games played this year, Pritchard 7.7 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.9 assists on 45 percent shooting from the floor and 41 percent shooting from deep.
Over time, the 23-year-old has garnered the trust of his teammates and, perhaps more importantly, Brad Stevens and, in turn, has managed to have his time spent on the hardwood increase considerably since day one where he’s shown flashes of being considered the steal of the 2020 NBA Draft.
While it’s still a bit early to say Pritchard can become a full-time starter in this league, keep in mind that, though his first start this year may have been a bit underwhelming (two points, three rebounds on 20 percent shooting), his second and, most recent start was far more impressive, as he dropped 14 points and grabbed three boards on 63 percent shooting from the floor and 67 percent shooting from deep.
More time in the league has seemingly built up some more confidence within the youngster, and more time on the hardwood has translated into great production for, when logging 20-29 minutes, the guard is posting solid per-game averages of 10.6 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists on 50 percent shooting from the floor and 48 percent shooting from deep.
The coaching staff already seems to be infatuated with their first-year man and, should they wish to look for a cheap option to replace Kemba Walker (if they part ways with him, of course) perhaps a simple way of going about things could be promoting from within.
Potential Boston Celtics starting point guard No. 2) Elfrid Payton
Like we stated in the opening slide, the Boston Celtics will have little cap room to work with this offseason, hence why we started out with a commodity already on their payroll in Pritchard as a cheap option to consider.
However, should they look to the free agency market for a potential low-cost flier to serve starter’s minutes, a seventh-year veteran floor general in Elfrid Payton could be both within their price range and, on paper, quite a nice fit within the team’s rotation.
Yes, we’re quite aware of the lowly season from a statistical standpoint the point guard is having, averaging 11.2 points, 3.4 assists, and 3.6 rebounds per game but, in theory, this could turn out to work in the C’s favor should they believe this level of play to be somewhat of a fluke and they wish to name him on the low.
Now, of course we’re not under the impression that Payton is this great guard who can guide a franchise on his own and take over games. That said, with the fact that the team has two All-Stars in tow already in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they wouldn’t need him to be such a player anyway.
What the Celtics could use is a player who can properly set up their franchise cornerstones for easy and quality looks at a bucket. Frankly, the team as a whole could use for such a talent, as they rank an underwhelming 24th in the league in assists per game while ranking within the top-10 in isolation-play frequency.
In truth, the 27-year-old’s struggles are predominantly due to the fact that New York tends to take away his on-ball duties and, instead, give them to their point-forward, Julius Randle, forcing him to play off-ball which is just simply not his strong suit.
Traditionally, a Stevens-led system is run through a lead point guard, and though he may not be the shooter that Boston is used to, his pass-first mentality could be of great service to this stationary offense.
For his career, Payton boasts per-game averages of 11 points, 6.2 assists, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.3 steals on 45 percent shooting from the field while holding a 33% assist percentage.
We’ve been saying for a while now that a quality set-up artist could be a sound and much-needed addition to this team, and a guy like Elfrid Payton would likely be a low-cost option for this team to consider trying out.