2 players that may have played their final game with the Boston Celtics

Boston Celtics player No. 2) Payton Pritchard

This one truly hurts to say, as he’s become a real fan favorite amongst both the C’s faithful and us here at HH, but this coming summer we feel that fans could see Brad Stevens entertaining offers involving the likes of Payton Pritchard heading outbound.

As we already stated, a large chunk of this year’s core rotation is slatted to remain intact come next season as the Celtics currently have 13 players under contract through 2022-23 and eight players under contract beyond then as well.

On the surface, this seems like a nice situation to be in, for the majority of this year’s Finals runner-up is expected to be returning for another go at things.

However, obviously, this team needs to make some alterations to their rotation if they wish to thrust themselves over the hump towards ultimate glory and, considering a large chunk of money is already tied to these contracts found on the books, the types of moves they’ll be able to make via free agency to add more players will likely be quite small due to these salary restraints.

With this, if the front office actually wishes to bolster their talent pool a bit more (they really should consider it), they might want to look to the trade market for the pieces they need and, being that it’s almost certain guys like Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, and Robert Williams will not be moved, there’s an argument to be made that Payton Pritchard is this team’s most valuable trade chip and, in turn, could bring them the biggest return with him serving as one of the main attractions in a deal.

A player who plays the most important position in the game and who is still on his rookie contract through 2025, many teams in a rebuilding phase with veterans on the block (we’re looking at you, Indiana) could be interested in bringing on the sophomore point guard.

Proving himself to be an energizer bunny type of contributor for the Boston Celtics, Pritchard has become quite an effective producer throughout his tenure thus far in the league, boasting averages of 15.5 points, 4.7 boards, and 4.2 assists per 75 possessions on 41 percent shooting from deep.

Even during this magnificent postseason run, though his minutes may have been inconsistent due to how often the C’s top players were on the floor, when the guard saw considerable action of 15 or more minutes he only managed to impress, posting efficient averages of 10.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 2.5 assists on 51 percent shooting from the floor and 41 percent shooting from deep.

Now, again, we at the Houdini absolutely adore Payton Pritchard and would love nothing more than to see him continue to grow within Boston’s rotation moving forward, but considering the fact that the coaching staff is obviously more interested in shelling out significant backcourt minutes to Derrick White, in an effort to address other areas of the roster, we fear that Stevens could be forced to dangle the second-year guard to pique the intrigue of other organizations to spark trade talks.