Payton Pritchard drafted #26 overall

ifmanis5

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Good news, that looked like it could have been worse.
The injured list is really piling up:
#NEBHInjuryReport for tomorrow vs. Cleveland:
Romeo Langford (right wrist surgery rehab) - OUT
Aaron Nesmith (low back spasms) - DOUBTFUL
Payton Pritchard (right MCL sprain) - OUT
Jayson Tatum (Health & Safety protocols) - OUT
 

128

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Good news, that looked like it could have been worse.
The injured list is really piling up:
#NEBHInjuryReport for tomorrow vs. Cleveland:
Romeo Langford (right wrist surgery rehab) - OUT
Aaron Nesmith (low back spasms) - DOUBTFUL
Payton Pritchard (right MCL sprain) - OUT
Jayson Tatum (Health & Safety protocols) - OUT
I wonder if Tatum is unable to pass the cardiac test that follows quarantine.
 

radsoxfan

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Does that mean a ligament tear has been ruled out?
It means he has a low grade partial tear of his MCL (medial collateral ligament).

Not a surgical injury, it will just scar down with very little chance of any lingering effects.

Return mostly is related to pain tolerance, nothing is unstable.
 

SeoulSoxFan

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It means he has a low grade partial tear of his MCL (medial collateral ligament).

Not a surgical injury, it will just scar down with very little chance of any lingering effects.

Return mostly is related to pain tolerance, nothing is unstable.
Every "sprain" is actually a tear, just the degree of it. Is that a correct assumption?
 

radsoxfan

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Yes, sprain technically just means tear.

Generally speaking when someone is talking about a full thickness grade 3 ligament tear, they don’t use the word sprain.

Sprain is usually reserved for the generic “we don’t know but it seems like a ligament injury” initial diagnosis. Once people have their full exam and MRI, it’s usually only used for grade 1 and grade 2.

People who have confirmed full thickness ACL tears just have a “sprained knee”, but no one really uses the term that way. It’s a bit confusing sometimes.
 

radsoxfan

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Grade 1 MCL was as good as he could hope.

More of a scare than anything, NFL players play through these sometimes without missing any games...

Glad to hear he will likely be back soon.
 

HowBoutDemSox

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Brad had to tell him to shoot in his first game back:
“To be honest, I thought he looked a little tentative,” Stevens said over Zoom. “I had to tell him to shoot. So the very next time he touched the ball he jacked one right in front of me. And he made it. So he’s a good listener. But I thought he looked timid in the first half and then I thought he was good in the second.”
https://nesn.com/2021/02/brad-stevens-had-request-for-payton-pritchard-in-first-game-back/
 

HomeRunBaker

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Whenever you can make a short list with JR Bremer you ceiling is uncapped.

Pritchard was back to himself against Toronto and their diminutive backcourt after stuggling with the length of Utah’s guards that forced him 3-5 feet behind the arc to get shots off the previous game. Danny got a nice rotation find on the cheap here for the next few years.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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Nice thing about PP is that he can make them from anywhere. As a lead ball handler most of his looks have come from above the break but he looks absolutely lethal from the corners. Really interesting wrinkle if you have him out there with JT/JB initiating the offense.
 

djbayko

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Okay, I'm a little drunk, and I know I'm not exactly exploring new territory here, but I fucking love this kid. Was watching highlights tonight to remind myself of how much poise he has on the NBA court as a rookie.

I also kind of like the idea that Danny Ainge kind of drafted the 2021 version of himself. A small guard who's ability outpaces his apparent physical gifts, and they both have a ton of grit.

A while ago, people were talking about possibly trading for a declining JJ Redick. We have a better version of Redick on the team already, and he has room to improve.
 
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luckiestman

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Okay, I'm a little drunk, and I know I'm not exactly exploring new territory here, but I fucking love this kid. Was watching highlights tonight to remind myself of how much poise he has on the NBA court as a rookie.

I also kind of like the idea that Danny Ainge kind of drafted the 2021 version of himself. A small guard who's ability outpaces his apparent physical gifts, and they both have a ton of grit.

A while ago, people were talking about possibly trading for a declining JJ Redick. We have a better version of Redick on the team already, and he has room to improve.
Are they really similar? I don’t watch a lot of JJ but I thought he played more like a not as good Ray Allen. I like Pritchard handling the ball more.
 

Jimbodandy

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Love me some Pritchard as well, but we might be underselling Danny's physical gifts a bit. I think he's still the only guy ever to be named high school first team All-American in football, baseball, and basketball.

PP should be here a long time. He's a legit contributor on a low first round salary and probably the best value asset on the team besides the Jays.
 

djbayko

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Are they really similar? I don’t watch a lot of JJ but I thought he played more like a not as good Ray Allen. I like Pritchard handling the ball more.
His handle is a lot better which is just one aspect which makes him much more valuable.

I guess I was kind of saying in my own drunken way that it appears PP probably gives you the 3PT accuracy and output that you’d hope to get from JJ and then some.
 

luckiestman

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His handle is a lot better which is just one aspect which makes him much more valuable.

I guess I was kind of saying in my own drunken way that it appears PP probably gives you the 3PT accuracy and output that you’d hope to get from JJ and then some.
Makes sense
 

Kliq

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His handle is a lot better which is just one aspect which makes him much more valuable.

I guess I was kind of saying in my own drunken way that it appears PP probably gives you the 3PT accuracy and output that you’d hope to get from JJ and then some.
You're drunk. Redick is one of the best pure shooters in the history of the game. Pritchard could potentially end up being a better player because of his ball-handling and ability to create for others, but there is literally nothing similar about their games.

Love me some Pritchard as well, but we might be underselling Danny's physical gifts a bit. I think he's still the only guy ever to be named high school first team All-American in football, baseball, and basketball.

PP should be here a long time. He's a legit contributor on a low first round salary and probably the best value asset on the team besides the Jays.
Not sure about All-American in three sports; Joe Mauer was the USA Today High School player of the year in both football and baseball his senior year, and was All-State in basketball his last two years of high school. Dave Winfield, who like Mauer, was from St. Paul Minnesota, was drafted by four different leagues (MLB, NBA, ABA and NFL).
 

lovegtm

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Love me some Pritchard as well, but we might be underselling Danny's physical gifts a bit. I think he's still the only guy ever to be named high school first team All-American in football, baseball, and basketball.

PP should be here a long time. He's a legit contributor on a low first round salary and probably the best value asset on the team besides the Jays.
Yeah, Ainge was also 6-5. I get that they're both white, but he was a totally different profile of athlete from PP. Teams have zero hesitation drafting a guy of Ainge's physical type/abilities.

Back to PP: aside from the offensive poise and obvious shooting touch, I'm really impressed at his ability/willingness to move his feet on defense. He's also got that Lowry/FVV small-dude strength, and it's way harder for guys to move him than they think it will be.
 

radsoxfan

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You're drunk. Redick is one of the best pure shooters in the history of the game. Pritchard could potentially end up being a better player because of his ball-handling and ability to create for others, but there is literally nothing similar about their games.



Not sure about All-American in three sports; Joe Mauer was the USA Today High School player of the year in both football and baseball his senior year, and was All-State in basketball his last two years of high school. Dave Winfield, who like Mauer, was from St. Paul Minnesota, was drafted by four different leagues (MLB, NBA, ABA and NFL).

https://www.legendssf.com/blogs/legends-blog/71800965-10-favorite-multi-sport-athletes
#7. Danny definitely in a different athlete class than PP
 

snowmanny

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Not having Babe Didrickson in the top 10 is weird (especially while listing her as “honorable mention.”) Seems to me that winning gold or silver in hurdles, javelin, and high jump and then winning the Women’s US Open in golf multiple times beats most of those others. When I was a kid she and Thorpe were the famous multi-sport athletes.
 

reggiecleveland

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Funny how people only compare white guys to white guys in the NBA. Pritchards is a "plucky white kid" like Ainge that is the end of their comparison.

Ainge is legit 6'5. When he played for the Blue Jays, just to show how much more athletic NBa is than MLB, he was noted for his tools, speed, raw power, are strength. Now some of that was absurd rule that meant he had to be on two sport guys are better athletes the big league roster or released, so he was just an AA kid.
 

TripleOT

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Pritchard’s shooting percentages across the board, after a quarter of a typical season, are better than the rookie season percentages of the best shooters of all time: Steph, Klay, Ray Allen, Reggie Miller.

Small sample size, less minutes, but obviously encouraging. PP needs to be more productive more frequently, since he so far has followed up some big games with duds.

I’m very encouraged by the other things he does well besides dead eye shooting: great handle and doesn’t turn the ball over much (when he doesn’t step out of bounds), very competitive on defense, even when switched onto bigger guys.

Hopefully, he can get 25+ consistent minutes every game and still shoot so efficiently. Maybe 25 PG minutes for Kemba, 23 for PP at point guard, and another 7 minutes off the ball for him.
 

luckiestman

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Funny how people only compare white guys to white guys in the NBA. Pritchards is a "plucky white kid" like Ainge that is the end of their comparison.

Ainge is legit 6'5. When he played for the Blue Jays, just to show how much more athletic NBa is than MLB, he was noted for his tools, speed, raw power, are strength. Now some of that was absurd rule that meant he had to be on two sport guys are better athletes the big league roster or released, so he was just an AA kid.
FVV is the normal PP comp which is the rare cross race comp
 

djbayko

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I know Danny is a crosss sport athlete (I had his sports cards as a kid), and I did not pick them because they’re both white. I picked them because one happens to be the GM who drafted the other and neither look like traditional athletes. Yes, there is more that goes into athletic ability than simply musculature, and some of those characteristics must be what allows each of them to thrive, respectively.
 

radsoxfan

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I know Danny is a crosss sport athlete (I had his sports cards as a kid), and I did not pick them because they’re both white. I picked them because one happens to be the GM who drafted the other and neither look like traditional athletes. Yes, there is more that goes into athletic ability than simply musculature, and some of those characteristics must be what allows each of them to thrive, respectively.
I was mainly replying to a post (not yours) that seemed to be questioning Danny's 3 sport All-American status.

Not sure what you mean by neither of them looking like traditional athletes (aside from being white), but no problem with the comparison at all. Plenty of obvious similarities, though I think people are rightly pointing out Danny's physical gifts were pretty substantial.
 

djbayko

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I was mainly replying to a post (not yours) that seemed to be questioning Danny's 3 sport All-American status.

Not sure what you mean by neither of them looking like traditional athletes (aside from being white), but no problem with the comparison at all. Plenty of obvious similarities, though I think people are rightly pointing out Danny's physical gifts were pretty substantial.
It was in the very next sentence.
Yes, there is more that goes into athletic ability than simply musculature...
And I didn’t pick you out for any particular reason. I was just replying to one of the bunch of posts on the topic.
 

radsoxfan

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It was in the very next sentence.

Perhaps the disconnect was in your initial post about them both being small guards outpacing their physical gifts. Danny was 6'5", fast, quick, a good leaper. All-American at WR in high school, a pretty traditional great athlete. He wasn't bulky, but that's pretty common for great high school and college athletes.

I think the comparison is still super interesting as guards that grew up in Orgeon, that alone is pretty uncommon. Can add in the white thing too.

Just not sure I would say they both outpaced their physical gifts.
 

djbayko

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Perhaps the disconnect was in your initial post about them both being small guards outpacing their physical gifts. Danny was 6'5", fast, quick, a good leaper. All-American at WR in high school, a pretty traditional great athlete. He wasn't bulky, but that's pretty common for great high school and college athletes.

I think the comparison is still super interesting as guards that grew up in Orgeon, that alone is pretty uncommon. Can add in the white thing too.

Just not sure I would say they both outpaced their physical gifts.
Fair enough. For whatever reason, my childhood memory of him is being the scrawny guy on the court. Reviewing pictures of him as a player today doesn’t really do anything to combat those memories.
 

Jimbodandy

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FVV is the normal PP comp which is the rare cross race comp
I think that it's a pretty damn accurate comp. Not perfect but those guys are similar in a lot of ways. PP will eventually get some love for his hands on defense (and abuse for his suboptimal physicality at PG until he gets stronger). But offensively, tons of similarities. PP probably ahead of FVV at the same age.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Prior to his injury: 21.0 mpg, 6.0 FGA/G, 2.9 3PA/G. 14 games. .425 from 3, 17/40.

Since: 23.1 mpg, 6.4 FGA/G, 5.3 3PA/G. 5 games, .481 from 3. 13/27.

All SSS. He's been letting it fly from 3 since his return though. I hope he keeps up the aggression.

He's a great piece alongside the Jays and I hope they keep him unless they can acquire someone like Collins or LaVine.
 

Jimbodandy

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Fair enough. For whatever reason, my childhood memory of him is being the scrawny guy on the court. Reviewing pictures of him as a player today doesn’t really do anything to combat those memories.
Well everyone was scrawnier back then on the court. Most guys didn't strength train. Ainge was bigger and more physically gifted than the people that he guarded more often than not, especially when he was playing point.
 
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Talk about moving the goalposts! Deano went from “Pritchard can’t play in this league. What a stupid pick!”

to “What’s everyone so excited about? He’s Dellavedova!”

He’ll move them again.