Payton Pritchard's latest viral moment will get Celtics fans excited

If you’re a good, not great, basketball player and you run into Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard at a pro-am tournament, things probably aren’t going to go well for you and your teammates.

The reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year lit the Ball Don’t Stop Pro-Am on fire Thursday, pouring in a record 68 points in Vancouver. He did so while going up against Memphis Grizzlies guard Jaylen Wells.

What’s more interesting is that he set the record with the previous top-scorer in attendance. That’s right. He surpassed (*checks notes) Payton Pritchard, who had scored 61 at the same event last year.

Pritchard has become known for relentlessly torching opponents in these pro-am tournaments. He usually pulls up to a few each summer and wreaks havoc in the Pacific Northwest. Most notably, the Celtics guard exploded for 92 points at the Portland Pro-Am back in 2021. As if the outing wasn’t impressive enough, it came in the midst of Boston’s NBA Summer League slate.

The man left Las Vegas, went up to Portland, and then flew back for the Summer League championship game.

Payton Pritchard is primed for a big year with the Celtics

Four years later, he’s entering what could be the biggest season of his career. There’s no doubt that Pritchard is going to have more offensive responsibility this season in Boston with the losses of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, as well as Jayson Tatum, who is recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon.

The added offensive burden couldn’t come at a better time for the 27-year-old. He took a significant jump in the 2024-25 season, logging career highs in nearly every category. Pritchard averaged 14.3 points, almost five more than the season prior, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game while shooting 47.2% from the field and 40.7% from beyond the arc.

Though the Celtics added Anfernee Simons in the trade that sent Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers, it feels like a safe guess to say Pritchard will be a starter this season -- a role that’s evaded him throughout his pro career.

Sure, there could’ve been more starts last year, but there was a clear desire to keep him in a sixth man role as much as possible. Pritchard did, however, make three starts towards the end of the season. He scored more, obviously, but what was more impressive was that he more than doubled his average in assists, logging 7.3 per game in the limited sample size.

Typically, Pritchard had been asked to be a sparkplug scorer off the bench. Whether that meant staying ready for catch-and-shoot opportunities or creating for himself on occasion, it didn’t offer much opportunity to create for others -- something he’ll almost certainly be asked to do in the upcoming campaign.

Pritchard’s playmaking ability is the thing that can catapult his game to yet another level. Everyone knows that he’s a bucket, but if he can make things easier on his teammates, then he’ll be all the more valuable.