I don't see this hole at PG if Kemba leaves. Pritchard is ready to start now. Right now. He will be a top 20 if not top 15 PG in the league as soon as next season.
We already have our replacement at PG.
I love Pritchard's game. His steadiness, his decision making, his shooting chops. Useful enough on defense. Just a solid all-round PG with excellent outside shooting.
Me neither, but mostly because I'm very high on Smart. I believe Pritchard is a solid role player (at least for now). He's a terrific shooter + ball handler. He's an OK passer. He ain't explosive/tall enough to consistently create his own shot. He scores most of his points as an off-ball shooter. Nice back-up option, that's for sure. He may become a decent starter down the road. Nothing special though.
Similar descriptions could be made of players like Derek Fisher.
Being a strong team offensive weapon is a major asset for a role player when placed next to star players. That is what Pritchard brings to the table. They are very few role player PGs who can handle the ball, make strong decisions, setup the team and hit outside shots at the levels that Pritchard can.
Pritchard doesn't need to be a star to be a long term fixture at starting PG.
Don't get me wrong, he's certainly a useful player to have. I just think we can easily replace what he brings to the table. Most PGs are reliable ball handlers and decent shooters. Pritchard is pretty good at both these things, but we can easily find someone else who provides a similar package (with better defense as well).
Can we find another Marcus Smart? Nope, I don't think so. Smart is a unique player. Pritchard is just a useful one. At least this is how I see it.
I have to disagree with this. if this was so easy to replace, we'd have someone better than Teague backing up Kemba. Smart doesn't provide what Pritchard provides in terms of shooting, ball handling and passing. Add Edwards and Waters in the mix on this for not being able to provide what Pritchard provides.
Pritchard's no all-star but he's bringing abilities to this team that the other PGs are not.
Just because we don't have a similar player right now on the roster, it doesn't mean that it would be difficult to find one. You want an example? Tomas Satoransky. He can do everything Pritchard does, plus he's 6 inches taller, hence he's a way more versatile defender.
If you ask me, I believe Smart is a way better passer than Pritchard. I would argue he's the best passer on our team.
I completely agree with this. Smart has terrific court awareness and is deceptively good at misdirection to create space for passes. He doesn't have Pritchard's handle, but he would absolutely be a superior starting option to Pritchard. Peyton has been a very pleasant surprise, and is fine value on a rookie scale deal for the role he provides, but he's replaceable.
prior to this year, I would have agreed but this year Smart's passing has been haphazard and off the mark more often than not. trying to hard to make the flashy pass rather than the basic fundamental pass that will get the job done with a lot less risk of being off target or turned over.
While there's no way to truly analyze this, I would say that this is unlikely to actually be true. What I can do is point to this wonderful data from the nba stats page:
https://www.nba.com/stats/players/passing/?Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TeamID=1610612738&sort=PASSES_MADE&dir=1&PerMode=Totals
Smart has made an identical number of passes this season as Pritchard -- 946, in roughly 70 fewer minutes. Smart's passes have led to assists 11.5% of the time, compared to 7.9% for Pritchard, or roughly 50% more frequently. Further, only two Celtics have a higher percentage, Jaylen and Tremont Waters. Jaylen passes 20 fewer times per game than Smart, so he's not throwing passes at the same frequency, and Waters' numbers are obviously not comparable given what type of minutes they're getting. So this year, it's probable that Smart is the best passer. Further, last year he earned assists on 11.3% of his passes, so slightly below this season (but he also led the team), and turned the ball over the same 2.6 times per 100 possessions, so there's nothing that says he's obviously making worse passes.
Smart has been very consistent in this passing for the last 5 seasons, posting marks between 10.7-11.5 percent, and has led the team amongst regulars three of those 5 seasons (behind Jaylen this year and Kyrie two years ago). He's been the Celtics most reliable passer over the last 5 years. (As a side note, Jaylen's 13.3% rate was bested only by Rondo for the C's since the advent of this stat, and nearly double last year's 7.4%. I've felt that his step forward in being a facilitator this year has been often undercounted on this board, but upon seeing this rate I feel even I have been guilty of that.)
Two points on this. This doesn't include hockey assists and just good ball movement. A rookie point guard who just joined the team should be way less of a productive passer than a 7 year vet. Isn't Smart the only Celtic who's been on the team every year in the last 5 years?
Firstly, there's a good deal of goal-post moving here. The argument was that Smart is a better passer than Pritchard and even the best on the team. Now you're instead saying that Pritchard doesn't have to be as good because he's a rookie? I'm confused, to say the least.
Secondly, if you clicked on the link, you would see that secondary assists, aka hockey assists, are on the page, and that Pritchard has 9 while Smart has 4, doesn't make up for the 35 total assists difference. But you're welcome to include them, in which case their respective assist percentages are 11.9% to 8.9%. And again, entering tonight, they've attempted an identical number of passes.
Further, on that same page we see potential assists. This is the number of shots that are taken from a pass, and also assist points created, which is the total number of points from assists. More of Smarts passes result in shot attempts than Pritchard (18% to 14.1%) and shots attempted from a Smart pass result in 1.59 points per attempt, whereas shots from a Pritchard pass result in 1.42 points per attempt.
To top it off, Pritchard averages 3.92 dribbles per touch, while Smart averages 3.36 dribbles per touch, and Pritchard's average touch is 4.24 seconds compared to Smart's 3.79 seconds, so it doesn't appear that Pritchard causes the ball to move more than Smart. I literally haven't found a single stat that demonstrates that Pritchard is a better passer than Smart. Heck, even the sometimes lobbed criticism that Smart takes too many shots doesn't hold that well, as Pritchard average 2 more attempts per 100 possessions than Smart.
Topic: Who plays PG if Kemba is traded? (split) (Read 14186 times)