Celtics News

[Neurotic Guy]

I found it really interesting that in Zarren's recent interview, he talked about wanting to trade up to make sure they landed Mitchell, but then he ended up being there at 40 anyway. You don't usually hear this kind of optimism for a mid-2nd round pick.

I definitely think he'll get a 2-way - there's no reason not to - but I guess there's a world where we trade Walsh and sign Mitchell. Still hoping we get a bargain basement deal done with Walsh to keep him, though. The potential he flashed last year was impressive. I know we have a lot of young defensive wings, however, and maybe ready to other more time.

I?m a big fan of Walsh and hope they keep him.  Good problem to have a bunch of potentially impactful wings vying for PT.  Hope they are wise in determining who to keep.  I like them all and hope Mitchell impresses in SL.

[Vermont Green]

BOS as a bunch of bench/fringe starter (random) wings; Hauser, Scheierman, Walsh, Hugo, and Harper.  Only 2, maybe 3 should get regular minutes.  I know Paul George will be rested plenty, but still, there are not enough minutes for all of these guys.

Hauser is kind of the incumbent starter but he is not a lock by any stretch.  There have been other threads on who of this bunch might break out.  I think all of them have started games.  I am hoping that Walsh plays like he did for that stretch where he was so good, but consistently over the whole season.

[Celtics2021]

BOS as a bunch of bench/fringe starter (random) wings; Hauser, Scheierman, Walsh, Hugo, and Harper.  Only 2, maybe 3 should get regular minutes.  I know Paul George will be rested plenty, but still, there are not enough minutes for all of these guys.

Hauser is kind of the incumbent starter but he is not a lock by any stretch.  There have been other threads on who of this bunch might break out.  I think all of them have started games.  I am hoping that Walsh plays like he did for that stretch where he was so good, but consistently over the whole season.

Indeed.  I would ideally like to consolidate two of them into a starting quality combo guard, or reserve with potential while we move Pritchard back to the starting spot.  Most likely that would be Hauser (due to salary) and one of Walsh or Scheierman (I am not trading Hugo and Harper is untraceable until Jan 15th because he signed a new contract with Bird rights).  That would give the Celtics $13-13.5 million to spend, staying under the tax and filling one spot with Dillon Mitchell.

Players that are in that range with various degrees of rumors or team cap/tax crunch surrounding them include:

Scoot Henderson
Damian Lillard
Davion Mitchell
Reed Sheppard
Anthony Black
Ty Jerome

[Vermont Green]

BOS as a bunch of bench/fringe starter (random) wings; Hauser, Scheierman, Walsh, Hugo, and Harper.  Only 2, maybe 3 should get regular minutes.  I know Paul George will be rested plenty, but still, there are not enough minutes for all of these guys.

Hauser is kind of the incumbent starter but he is not a lock by any stretch.  There have been other threads on who of this bunch might break out.  I think all of them have started games.  I am hoping that Walsh plays like he did for that stretch where he was so good, but consistently over the whole season.

Indeed.  I would ideally like to consolidate two of them into a starting quality combo guard, or reserve with potential while we move Pritchard back to the starting spot.  Most likely that would be Hauser (due to salary) and one of Walsh or Scheierman (I am not trading Hugo and Harper is untraceable until Jan 15th because he signed a new contract with Bird rights).  That would give the Celtics $13-13.5 million to spend, staying under the tax and filling one spot with Dillon Mitchell.

Players that are in that range with various degrees of rumors or team cap/tax crunch surrounding them include:

Scoot Henderson
Damian Lillard
Davion Mitchell
Reed Sheppard
Anthony Black
Ty Jerome

So for example, Hauser and Scheierman for Damian Lillard.  By my spreadsheet, that would put us at about $1.9M under the tax threshold with 13 spots, which should be enough to sign Dillon Mitchell to the 14th spot.

I would do that, but start Lillard and still have Pritchard off the bench.  Maybe OK to switch them, Lillard might be good to be the scoring guy with the bench group but Pritchard seemed better off the bench.

Lillard         Pritchard           Conley
White         Gonzalez           Harper
George       Walsh                Mitchell
Tatum         Garza               Cenac
Queta         Robinson           Williams (2-way)

[Phantom255x]

While finances were clearly involved in the moves this offseason, it does seem like a constant theme this offseason that the Celtics are propping up Pritchard and saying he will take a leap this season without Jaylen, and that he could even be in Brunson trajectory. That'd be awesome, but I worry they may be putting a little too much pressure on him too. There's a reason usually in the postseason, the deeper the series or playoff run goes his minutes tend to go down and his impact decreases. I still think he can be a nice starter, but probably not a consistent star given his size and defense. Not everyone can just "become Brunson" overnight

[Neurotic Guy]

While finances were clearly involved in the moves this offseason, it does seem like a constant theme this offseason that the Celtics are propping up Pritchard and saying he will take a leap this season without Jaylen, and that he could even be in Brunson trajectory. That'd be awesome, but I worry they may be putting a little too much pressure on him too. There's a reason usually in the postseason, the deeper the series or playoff run goes his minutes tend to go down and his impact decreases. I still think he can be a nice starter, but probably not a consistent star given his size and defense. Not everyone can just "become Brunson" overnight

While his offense and size are Brunson-esque, I don?t think he evolves into what Brunson has become. I think he could bump up a couple of ppg but I just don?t see a full blown Brunson. That said, I love the player he is.

[Phantom255x]

While finances were clearly involved in the moves this offseason, it does seem like a constant theme this offseason that the Celtics are propping up Pritchard and saying he will take a leap this season without Jaylen, and that he could even be in Brunson trajectory. That'd be awesome, but I worry they may be putting a little too much pressure on him too. There's a reason usually in the postseason, the deeper the series or playoff run goes his minutes tend to go down and his impact decreases. I still think he can be a nice starter, but probably not a consistent star given his size and defense. Not everyone can just "become Brunson" overnight

While his offense and size are Brunson-esque, I don?t think he evolves into what Brunson has become. I think he could bump up a couple of ppg but I just don?t see a full blown Brunson. That said, I love the player he is.

No I don't see it either. I wish they didn't put it out there either, like "yeah we think he can become like the Finals MVP". Come on. But his numbers could absolutely go up, I think he can become a 20/5/6 kind of player with more minutes and a consistent role

[Vermont Green]

Below are Pritchard's key stats.  His minutes and points have trended up, especially the last 3 seasons, but his efficiency went down a little in 2025-26 with the increased minutes and FGA.  Plus in 2025-26, he was playing mostly with Brown and not Tatum.  Tatum tends to be better at creating better looks for others.

I am not expecting a big change in Pritchard's production.  Maybe better efficiency.  I would like to see him get to the line more.  Nice jump in assists for last season.


Season    GP    GS    MIN    FGA   FG% 3P%   FTA   AST   TO   PTS
2020-21   66      4   19.2    6.3   44.0   41.1   0.7   1.8   0.8     7.7
2021-22   71      2   14.1    5.3   42.9   41.2   0.3   2.0   0.6     6.2
2022-23   48      3   13.4    5.1   41.2   36.4   0.3   1.3   0.8     5.6
2023-24   82      5   22.3    7.7   46.8   38.5   0.7   3.4   0.7     9.6
2024-25   80      3   28.4   10.8   47.2   40.7   1.1   3.5   1.0   14.3
2025-26   79    50   32.4   13.8   46.4   37.7   1.7   5.2   1.4   17.0

[Celtics2021]

Below are Pritchard's key stats.  His minutes and points have trended up, especially the last 3 seasons, but his efficiency went down a little in 2025-26 with the increased minutes and FGA.  Plus in 2025-26, he was playing mostly with Brown and not Tatum.  Tatum tends to be better at creating better looks for others.

I am not expecting a big change in Pritchard's production.  Maybe better efficiency.  I would like to see him get to the line more.  Nice jump in assists for last season.


Season    GP    GS    MIN    FGA   FG% 3P%   FTA   AST   TO   PTS
2020-21   66      4   19.2    6.3   44.0   41.1   0.7   1.8   0.8     7.7
2021-22   71      2   14.1    5.3   42.9   41.2   0.3   2.0   0.6     6.2
2022-23   48      3   13.4    5.1   41.2   36.4   0.3   1.3   0.8     5.6
2023-24   82      5   22.3    7.7   46.8   38.5   0.7   3.4   0.7     9.6
2024-25   80      3   28.4   10.8   47.2   40.7   1.1   3.5   1.0   14.3
2025-26   79    50   32.4   13.8   46.4   37.7   1.7   5.2   1.4   17.0

So last year, Pritchard had a .607 TS% without Jaylen, and a .563 TS% with him, and .577 eFG% without JB and a .547 eFG% with him.  So he was reasonably more efficient without JB.  But also, with JB Pritchard had a 18.5% usage, compared to 27.2% without him.  So not only was he more efficient, he was more efficient on 50% more usage.  On the other hand, PP was substantially more efficient when Tatum was on the court with him last year, albeit in a rather small sample size.

I think this is some of what the Celtics are looking at.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Some players, while good in a general counting-stats sense, tend to not elevate the performance of their teammates.

Consider how good some of Russell Westbrook's stats were, especially all of the triple-doubles, yet a lot of his numbers were "hollow," as he didn't seem to really create more wins for his teams. I think Chris Paul was sorta like that, too.

Well, it seems that Brad views Jaylen this way. Since the trade, I've been doing a lot of reading on Jaylen's numbers, and though I'm far from an expert, this is how his stats come across to me as well.

Combine that with the fact that keeping him around would result in two players eating a huge part of the cap space, and I see why Brad traded him. The trade shocked me -- that it was with a division rival, and the return seemed underwhelming -- but it makes sense to me now. And since there are certain things about Brown that rub me the wrong way, I'm not sad that he's no longer a Celtic.

How good the return is remains to be seen, as does the outcome of the upcoming season, but I think this trade could ultimately shake out as being a good thing, especially if it enables the Celtics to acquire one or two high-impact (non-empty-stats) players over the next couple of seasons.