Payton Pritchard has earned a reputation as an elite bench scorer in the NBA, going from a fringe rotation guy to Sixth Man of the Year to a core part of the Celtics. Last season, he averaged 17 points a game, and this year, with Jaylen Brown gone, he’s expected to be an even bigger part of Boston’s offense.
He’s already efficient from everywhere on the court and has proven he can be lethal getting into the paint just as much as from the three-point line. But if there’s one obvious area where he can improve, it’s getting to the free throw line. For a player who has the ball and is probing the defense as often as Pritchard, he doesn’t draw nearly as many fouls as he could.
Pritchard working on drawing more fouls
When he does get to the stripe, he’s one of the best in the league, a career 87% free throw shooter, and he hit 89% last season. The problem is, he attempted just 1.7 free throws per game last season in 32.4 minutes a night. Those are gimmes for Payton, and he’s simply not capitalizing on one of his best skills. But hopefully, that’s about to change.
In a recent interview with Bobby Manning of CLNS, Pritchard revealed that this offseason he’s focusing on getting to the free throw line more often.
“Drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line more, I think I need to get better at that… It’s technique stuff, learning how to draw the foul when they’re being handsy and stuff like that. There are different ways, but I’ve been working on it.”
This should be music to the ears of Celtics fans. Nobody wants to see him turn into a flopper, and in fact, he even mentioned that in the interview with Manning, but free throws are low-hanging fruit in today’s NBA, and somebody who is so skilled with the ball and is automatic from the line should be taking advantage.
To make All-Star leap, Pritchard must shoot more free throws
All summer we’ve been hearing ambitious comparisons between Pritchard and Jalen Brunson, and while that may be a stretch, the similarities in their games are clear. But one major difference is that Brunson is a savant at drawing fouls and lives at the charity stripe. In his four seasons with the Knicks, Jalen has averaged 5.8, 6.5, 6.9, and 5.7 free throw attempts per game.
In the playoffs, when halfcourt offense gets even tougher, those numbers have jumped to 6.2, 9.2, 7.8, and 6.8. That’s almost seven free points a game that Brunson is earning for his team in the biggest games of the season when it’s toughest to score. Considering he just led the Knicks to a title, this may be something to take note of.
Nobody is expecting Pritchard to turn into Brunson. And he’s not going to suddenly average close to 10 free throw attempts per game. But 1.7 per game is almost comically low, and to take the All-Star leap that many think he’s capable of, this is an easy place to start, and it’s great to hear that he seems to have reached the same conclusion.
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