Payton playing himself out of the league…

[PhoSita]

That's what you'd expect.  He's a second year NBA player who was a four year college player. 

He's already 23.5 years old.  He's fully four years older than some of the guys he's playing against in SL.

I like Pritchard, though. He's solid and I feel good that the Celts have him in the rotation.

[LilRip]

And he has played himself out of the league. The Summer League, of course.

Payton Pritchard's run with the Boston Celtics' NBA Summer League team in Las Vegas has come to an end.

“We were able to talk as a team and an organization and Payton won’t be with us the rest of the way,” Celtics Summer League coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters Friday. “That’s a prior engagement he made months ago and it’s something we honored. We'll be moving forward”

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/payton-pritchard-done-celtics-summer-league-after-stellar-run

Just as well! Lol

If you’re dominant (not just good) in Summer League, you’re likely an NBA rotation-level player. I think Pritchard is a surefire rotation player at this point and Nesmith miiiiiight get minutes given how good he’s looked too

With Pritchard out, I’m also glad that it gives other guys more of an opportunity to write their narrative with their play (is this Carsen’s revival tour? Does Romeo really have PG skills? Will Yam show he belongs in the NBA? Will there be other players who will latch on to an NBA team because they were given a chance to play?)

[Ogaju]

why isn’t GW playing?

I'm actually glad he is not

Why?

[pearljammer10]

Yeah this was noted yesterday:

John Karalis: Joe Mazzulla says Payton Pritchard’s summer league is over, but it’s because of a prior engagement that had been discussed with the team

[coco]

….Payton separated himself from the rest.  Was clearly the PRO among less talent.  It was exactly what I was expecting from Romeo but didn’t happen.  Nesmith also is clearly separating himself.

Romeo has been disappointing; or maybe my expectations were too high.

[rogueandpoet]

It's looking to me like Pritchard and Nesmith might be the best 3pt shooters on the team 40%ers. Don't they have to play to space the floor for the Jay's? Or do they turn it on with the secund unit?

[SHAQATTACK]

PP and Nesmith from what I ve seen look like they might be in run for best three point shooter in summer league

[bello_man09]

ok Edwards

[BudweiserCeltic]

He's back for the finals:

Payton Pritchard @paytonpritch3
Back in Vegas on Tuesday for summer league chip!
https://twitter.com/paytonpritch3/status/1427122124729188355

I assume he'll be playing...

[gouki88]

He's back for the finals:

Payton Pritchard @paytonpritch3
Back in Vegas on Tuesday for summer league chip!
https://twitter.com/paytonpritch3/status/1427122124729188355

I assume he'll be playing...

Summer League equivalent of the Warriors adding KD

[Surferdad]

He's back for the finals:

Payton Pritchard @paytonpritch3
Back in Vegas on Tuesday for summer league chip!
https://twitter.com/paytonpritch3/status/1427122124729188355

I assume he'll be playing...

OK fine, but let's be honest:  The team didn't need this and PP didn't need this either.

[Irish Stew]

Nesmith and Pritchard have shown enough to be the nucleus of a trade for Beal. Now is the time to pursue that trade hard.

[Celtics4ever]

Nice to see the team go for it once!

[colincb]

PP's status for tomorrow is still uncertain. Madar practiced today and still might play.

[colincb]

Sam Vecenie@Sam_Vecenie 4h

Wrote up my “Too Good For Summer League” team, the best second-year guys I saw who played at the event this year. Think it was more loaded with second-year talent than I can remember

Payton Pritchard leads the way, with Tyrese Maxey, IQ, and Desmond Bane: https://theathletic.com/2772088/2021/0

An excerpt from the Athletic as an example of the high quality of the writing a subscription could bring you:

The Starters
G: Payton Pritchard, Celtics (captain)

Honestly, ranking Pritchard at No. 37 on my 2020 NBA Draft Board is one of the dumber things I’ve done logically in a while. I loved Pritchard in college. I have a Naismith Award vote and voted him as a clear finalist. He would have been my second-place vote if the ballot was a ranked-choice ballot. Simply put, he’s just gotten so much better each of the last three years, and it was obvious then that Pritchard was going to be an effective offensive NBA player. I let the worries I have about him defensively override what I knew what true about him offensively. Even if I do think the defensive concerns are still justified, that was just silly. He’s clearly going to be worthy of the first-round pick the Celtics used on him, and he has a chance to exceed that by a pretty sizable margin if his play continues.

Pritchard was the most effective player I saw at summer league this year, which shouldn’t come as a total surprise given that he’s coming off of a season where he deservedly earned votes for the All-Rookie team. There was never a moment where he was hurried or rushed. His poise stood out to the utmost degree to the point that he almost looked bored while also trying to make dudes look ridiculous trying to defend his step-back game.

Three things really stood out. First, the range. Pritchard looked extremely comfortable shooting not just behind the NBA line, but shooting over five feet behind the NBA line. Any team that went under a ball-screen that got set even 30 feet away from the basket got punished. But honestly, we kind of knew he could do that. The improvements came in two places. Pritchard’s handle has taken another step forward. There’s another level of suddenness off the bounce. He uses deceleration well, then explodes into each move. On top of that, he can creatively string together multiple change-of-direction moves at full-speed now while maintaining total control.

More than that, though, there was not a more comfortable passer at summer league. Pritchard’s decision-making has long been terrific, but it was even better this summer. He posted an absurd 8.7 assists to 1.3 turnovers per in his three games. His live-dribble passing took a step forward, particularly with one hand. Having long been more of a jump-stop passer, Pritchard threw a couple of impressive one-handed live dribble looks with confidence that make me think he can run the show as a starting guard at some point for this Celtics core.

Everything about this was exactly the kind of performance you expect to see from a guy when you’re counting on him to take a leap the following season. And indeed, even with the Dennis Schröder signing, the Celtics need Pritchard to be useful this year, at the very least off the bench. They need secondary creation next to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown from the backcourt. It’s easy to feel way better about that coming from Pritchard following a standout summer league performance.