Payton Pritchard drafted #26 overall

Cesar Crespo

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I mentioned the idea before and it got a warm response, but PP staring and Kemba coming off the bench would be great. It makes too much sense to happen though.

Every game that PP plays, the more I think this. Even after his 2 duds in Detroit. His duds are not that awful.
 

Euclis20

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I think this is right, especially if we are talking about a PG. Even most players who have good rookie years take a few games to adjust.
Along with the rest of the rookie class, he's also facing an unprecedented situation (in recent history): No summer league, greatly reduced offseason training, greatly reduced preseason schedule...hell, he was drafted less than 2 months ago. The fact that he's useful in NBA games now, against good teams, is remarkable considering most rookies at this point in their career are just finishing up summer league. He's leading the rookie class in minutes played, and while that comes with obvious caveats (the Celtics are the only team to have played 8 games, if the Celtics were healthy he'd have maybe half as many minutes), it's still super impressive for a rookie to be on the court (for a good team) for that much time without being exposed this early.
 

Euclis20

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I mentioned the idea before and it got a warm response, but PP staring and Kemba coming off the bench would be great. It makes too much sense to happen though.

Every game that PP plays, the more I think this. Even after his 2 duds in Detroit. His duds are not that awful.
Kemba started in the all star game less than 12 months ago. He's one of the very best chemistry guys in the league, but this would be unbelievably insulting. It's 100% not happening (this year), nor should it.
 

Light-Tower-Power

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Kemba started in the all star game less than 12 months ago. He's one of the very best chemistry guys in the league, but this would be unbelievably insulting. It's 100% not happening (this year), nor should it.
Yeah...as impressive as PP has been, and as bearish as I am on Kemba coming back fully healthy, I think giving away his starting job to PP might be a bit premature.
 

NoXInNixon

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Kemba started in the all star game less than 12 months ago. He's one of the very best chemistry guys in the league, but this would be unbelievably insulting. It's 100% not happening (this year), nor should it.
What if you sell it to Kemba as load management? They're going to limit his minutes by bringing him off the bench. Not a demotion, just a response to his injury.

If PP is really the real deal , maybe this time next year we're talking about trading Kemba away to some place where he can start, but that's premature to speculate about now.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Kemba started in the all star game less than 12 months ago. He's one of the very best chemistry guys in the league, but this would be unbelievably insulting. It's 100% not happening (this year), nor should it.
He'd be getting just as many minutes and he'd be finishing games. It would work if players were robots.
 

Euclis20

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What if you sell it to Kemba as load management? They're going to limit his minutes by bringing him off the bench. Not a demotion, just a response to his injury.

If PP is really the real deal , maybe this time next year we're talking about trading Kemba away to some place where he can start, but that's premature to speculate about now.
Load management is sitting out the second (or first) night of back to backs, or having pre-determined days in which the player knows ahead of time his minutes are going to be limited. Point me to a situation in which a player was consistently load managed by coming off the bench and I'll reconsider, but I can't remember ever seeing this. Coming off the bench is a major change.

He'd be getting just as many minutes and he'd be finishing games. It would work if players were robots.
I mean, maybe? They aren't robots, so it wouldn't work. Starting in the NBA still means something to these players, as it should. You don't move a guy to the bench who started in the all star game last year unless you want to lose him, and potentially half the team.

What you really want is to try to stagger minutes so that Kemba ends up spending more time with the bench guys and Pritchard with the starters, as long as Kemba is on the floor at the start and the end of the game. That's the only way to sell something like this.
 

radsoxfan

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Kemba is going to come back very slowly. I wouldn't be surprised if it takes him awhile to ramp up to even 25 min a game.

Regardless who starts, there should be plenty of time for PP. Hopefully Teague is the odd man out if PP keeps this up.

Kemba can get the first 4-5 minutes of each quarter. Will be a mix of time with the starters (1st/3rd) and the bench (2nd/4th). If he playing well and healthy he comes back in for crunch time.
 

Cellar-Door

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Kemba honestly should start when he comes back. Much for the same reason Pritchard was best coming off the bench last night. You want guys to get settled into roles.
Kemba will get worked in slowly in terms of total minutes, back to backs etc. But you want him to start because he's going to be the starter come playoff time, and you want him to find his role and rhythm with those guys. And, you want him to do it while he's as fresh as possible, because late in games he may tire and slow, and you want to be able to pull him out for rest while having gotten him as many minutes as possible with the units he'll play with at 100%.
 

OnTheBlack

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His handle is elite, which allows his athleticism to play up, and gets him wherever he wants on the court. I don’t think we realized this (I didn’t) when he was drafted. The ball is on a string for him and it’s an underrated skill in the league IMO as it opens up so much in ones game. Add solid shooting and strong court awareness and he’s a real player. Great pick by Ainge.
 

chilidawg

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His handle is elite, which allows his athleticism to play up, and gets him wherever he wants on the court. I don’t think we realized this (I didn’t) when he was drafted. The ball is on a string for him and it’s an underrated skill in the league IMO as it opens up so much in ones game. Add solid shooting and strong court awareness and he’s a real player. Great pick by Ainge.
I don't know what his track numbers are, but he's pretty damned fast with the ball in his hand. Not much vertical athleticism, but he seems athletic in the horizontal plane.
 

djbayko

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How about Little Pritchard, because he's got a whole lot of shakin' goin' on?

Okay, not really. I think it's clever, but not a good nickname for him. I say just let it happen naturally. Time Lord presented itself to us, and the perfect nickname for PP will come as well.
 

osori

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Happy that PP has been amazing, but it is kind of scary to think where the Celtics would be right now if he performed like Waters or Edwards instead of exceeding expectations.
 

NomarsFool

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Crossposted from the analysis thread:

It's still early days, of course, but I feel like PP has pushed Teague down to 3rd string PG when Kemba returns. I don't think PP gives up anything to Teague on the defensive end - a little shorter, and Teague probably has a little bit more savvy due to his experience, but PP seems to have quick hands and has contributed to a lot of steals, in my opinion. PP also has Teague beat with regards to perimeter shooting, I'd say. Teague's 4-4 performance from 3 on opening night was very likely an outlier, I'd say. PP also seems to be doing a good job of driving and dishing and overall running the offense.
 

Eddie Jurak

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What if you sell it to Kemba as load management? They're going to limit his minutes by bringing him off the bench. Not a demotion, just a response to his injury.

If PP is really the real deal , maybe this time next year we're talking about trading Kemba away to some place where he can start, but that's premature to speculate about now.
I think this forgets that players are people, Kemba is a star player, and Pritchard has played a handful of good games.

Kemba should start when he returns and Pritchard should have to earn the starting role, not just have it handed to him.

The only exception I would make is that if Kemba comes back on a very tight minutes limit I could see using him off the bench for a bit.
 

the moops

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Yea, this is crazy talk. Kemba Walker is a much better basketball player than Payton Pritchard. The start to his rookie campaign has been nice, but seriously folks, settle down a bit
 

BigSoxFan

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Yea, this is crazy talk. Kemba Walker is a much better basketball player than Payton Pritchard. The start to his rookie campaign has been nice, but seriously folks, settle down a bit
Not so sure about that...

23 Pt / 8 Ast games as % of total with the Celtics (including playoffs):

Pritchard: 12.5% (1 for 8)
Kemba: 2.7% (2 for 73)

There it is. The data clearly shows that Payton Pritchard is almost 5 times more likely to have a game with 23 points and 8 assists than Kemba Walker.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Yea, this is crazy talk. Kemba Walker is a much better basketball player than Payton Pritchard. The start to his rookie campaign has been nice, but seriously folks, settle down a bit
Better players have come off the bench before. It worked pretty well for the Spurs and it didn't hurt Manu's rep any.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Better players have come off the bench before. It worked pretty well for the Spurs and it didn't hurt Manu's rep any.
Different scenarios. You don’t demote a player returning from injury who was selected to start an All-Star game 12 months ago for a low rookie draft pick. The business doesn’t work this way.

Having said that.....we don’t even know if Kenna will be returning this year at all so there’s that.
 

RetractableRoof

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Different scenarios. You don’t demote a player returning from injury who was selected to start an All-Star game 12 months ago for a low rookie draft pick. The business doesn’t work this way.

Having said that.....we don’t even know if Kenna will be returning this year at all so there’s that.
I agree with your point... but um... Tom Brady says hello...

And no PP is NOT a GOAT or hall of famer... but it just struck me as funny given Brady was a late late round draft pick.
 

shoelace

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Kemba should start when he returns and Pritchard should have to earn the starting role, not just have it handed to him.

The only exception I would make is that if Kemba comes back on a very tight minutes limit I could see using him off the bench for a bit.
I agree with all of this.

Pritchard has played a ton of minutes with Teague, Cleaning the Glass puts him at an even 50/50 for PG and SG. So he'll still see plenty of time even with Kemba back. I'd guess Teague takes the minutes hit or we see a lot of two small guy lineups. And he is a rookie. Some of these dudes do hit a wall with a longer season, especially with the condensed nature of this season, he might be better served playing 24-28 minutes a night.

I'm totally with the folks that would sub Kemba out early in the first to try to get him more minutes against reserves and to help with bench scoring. Especially if they put Robert Williams in at the same time, as they seem to have some chemistry.
 

BaseballJones

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Marc Iavaroni...ugh, just threw up in my mouth, what a meatball.
He was Philly’s Kurt Rambis. A total garbage pail power forward with very little skill but a huge willingness to do all the dirty work.

Jones was ten times the player Iavaroni was.
 

luckiestman

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FVV is the floor...CP3 is the ceiling

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Humphrey

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The great thing about last night is that we got a nearly ideal controlled experiment on PP versus Waters. The "winner" was so obvious that it simplifies roster management going forward. Waters (and probably Edwards too) is 100% expendable. I was never a Waters fan (too small; no single elite skill/charateristic) but his limitations jumped off the screen last night. He's worse than PP at both ends by a substantial margin. He reminds me of a AAAA player in baseball. Can put up numbers in the G-league/International League but never going to be capable in the NBA/MLB.
Plus/minus is a deceiving stat for sure, but the other night in a blowout, Waters was -17. He was out there for a bad stretch at the beginning of the game and a bad stretch at the end. In any event, Carsen Edwards got some minutes tonight and didn't embarrass himself. Would have been nice if he drilled a 3 wide open in the corner; hasn't been able to do that in the NBA.