There was some uncertainty as to whether or not the Celtics and Payton Pritchard would get a contract extension done before the October 19th deadline, but the two sides came to an agreement on Tuesday for a two-year, $44.2 million deal. The new deal will pay Pritchard his max allowable (140% of his current contract) for the 2028-29 season, $21.2 million, and the sides have a mutual option for $22.9 million for the 2029-30 season.
Pritchard will play out his remaining deal, which is roughly $7.77 million for this season and $8.3 million for next season, before the extension kicks in two years from now. The mutual option gives both Pritchard and the Celtics a chance to reevaluate things and go from there with a figure that’s likely to look very reasonable to both parties.
Celtics keep Pritchard on a team-friendly deal
This deal is a rare win-win for an NBA contract, as the Celtics get at least one more year of Pritchard at a team-friendly number. They’re expecting Payton to take a leap and become one of their best and most important players on offense. Paying a core member of the team in the low $20 million range with the salary cap climbing is a massive bargain and will be a major boon for the Celtics in building out the roster.
If Pritchard keeps getting better and both sides agree to the option, Boston will be paying him roughly $60 million over the next four years, which is incredible value for a player producing at borderline All-Star level.
Pritchard locks in a guaranteed max deal for at least 2 years
For Pritchard, this is also a win, because frankly, he got the maximum amount he’s allowed to make. Sure, he could have foregone an extension and hit unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2028, but that would be a huge risk. At that point, Payton will be 30 years old, and we’ve seen what the free agency market looks like for 6’1” point guards.
Maybe he could have made more, but there’s a chance he would have met a cold market and come nowhere close to a deal that would pay him $22 million in average annual value. The mutual option means that either side can opt into the deal for 2029-30, but the Celtics cannot opt out. So, if Pritchard continues to improve and feels that he could make even more as a free agent three years from now, he can still do so, while still having the $22.9 million option to fall back on if not.
At the end of the day, the Celtics have kept one of their most important players in Boston for at least the next three seasons, and done so at a very reasonable price that will allow them to be aggressive with other parts of the roster, while Pritchard has finally guaranteed himself generational wealth after playing for a huge discount over the first six years of his career (plus the next two).
Everybody wins, everybody is happy, and now everybody can focus on basketball and raising Banner 19 in TD Garden.
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