In a weird way, one of the biggest winners of the Celtics’ trade deadline was Payton Pritchard, despite what may have appeared like a demotion. PP was relegated from his starting role, which he had occupied all season, back to his familiar sixth man role, a role in which he excelled last season.
Generally, getting moved from being a starter to a reserve more than halfway through the season would be a bad thing, a reflection of poor play. But in this case, it has been quite the opposite. Since coming off the bench, he has still played over 30 minutes in every game, seeing no reduction there, and he’s still been in finishing lineups down the stretch.
But coming off the bench has given the Celtics a spark and has created a more aggressive Pritchard. In six games off the bench, he has scored 24 points or more in all but one, dished out 7+ assists in five of the six, and, most importantly, Boston has won five out of the six games since dealing Simons.
With Payton in that role, he’s thriving, and the team is too. He immediately looks as good as he has all season, and now running the second unit, he again looks like perhaps the best bench player in the league. The only thing is, due to the NBA’s rules, Pritchard won’t be eligible to go back-to-back as Sixth Man of the Year this season, because he has already started in 48 games.
The rules dictate that to be eligible, a player must come off the bench for more games than he starts. Considering the Celts only have 27 games remaining, and this is a regular-season-only award, PP can top out at 33 games as a reserve.
Pritchard wasted no time in proving he's still NBA's best 6th man
So, even if he keeps up this play and dominates the unofficial second half of the season as a backup, he can’t win the award. But that’s okay. He rightfully received the honor a season ago, and after just a couple of weeks, it’s already clear that he’s right back in the mix as one of the best sixth men in the NBA.
Awards or not, that’s huge for the Celtics and for Pritchard, and it’s going to be a real factor in the playoffs. Rotations get crunched, and weaknesses get exposed. Now, the Celtics know that with Pritchard at the helm, they are going to have a strong bench and reliable offense even when their starters are off the court.
That’s a huge luxury, and no matter how the Cs stumbled into this solution, it has been working out incredibly. There’s a proven track record of this working out for Boston to rely on. Being able to pivot right back into a known position of strength has been a massive win for the team.