3 Young players the Boston Celtics should develop, 4 to give up on

Give up on: Payton Pritchard

Payton Pritchard was a late first-round pick of the Boston Celtics during the 2020 NBA Draft. He came into the NBA as one of the most experienced prospects coming out of college and one that could potentially be a day 1 contributor. In his defense, he was that for the Celtics during his rookie season. Since then, though, his production and, seemingly, importance to the team has dropped in each of the last two seasons.

Because of that and the fact that it’s been reported that Pritchard would actually prefer a trade away from Boston, it’s easy to see why the Celtics should be willing to “give up” on Pritchard as a prospect.

Pritchard is already a player that is looking to move on from the Celtics, so why shouldn’t Boston be willing to move on from him? Even though there is a path toward Pritchard being a rotation player for the Celtics this season, I’m not sure how much upside there is with continuing to develop Pritchard compared to some of the other young players on this roster. Even less so considering Pritchard could test restricted free agency after this season.

For Pritchard and the Celtics, it seems like it’s only a matter of time until there’s a divorce between the two. It may happen before this season, at the NBA Trade Deadline, or even next offseason. Pritchard is a good young player but the Celtics may be at the point where they’re ready to move on from the experiment.