It Sounds Like Portland Likes Payton Pritchard
The aftermath of the Damian Lillard trade is fascinating. It may be more fascinating than the lead up to the Lillard trade. Jrue Holiday is available and we know the bidding war is coming. The Celtics should absolutely be in and they may have an inside track to land the former UCLA product.
Yahoo! Sports’ Jake Fischer said on the “Yahoo Sports NBA: Ball Don’t Lie” podcast that Portland has interest in Payton Pritchard.
“With Brogdon to match Holiday’s salary, yeah, Payton Pritchard is going out the door in that scenario,” Fischer said. “Payton Pritchard is definitely someone on Portland’s radar. He played college basketball at Oregon. Clearly, that would be a match made in heaven. But there’s no way to really get the salaries to match if you’re not including Robert Williams or Al Horford. It just kind of gets thorny.”
Pritchard, 25, has made it well known that he would like a trade. Pritchard is from West Linn, Oregon, and played collegiate ball for the Ducks. A return to the Pacific Northwest makes a lot of sense. Pritchard would be a logical young backup point guard for Scoot Henderson too.
Also, keep in mind that Mike Schmitz was really high on Pritchard coming into the draft. Schmitz is now a high-level assistant with the Blazers. If Portland really wants Pritchard, it could be who determine who lands Holiday. For those curious, this is our draft profile on Pritchard if you want to go back in time.
Pritchard isn’t a household name but he’s shown serious flashes. It’s just come in limited playing time. A year ago Boston had Derrick White, Marcus Smart, and Malcolm Brogdon on the roster. It was a very muddy path to playing time. Pritchard is a career 40% marksman from 3-point range on 3.5 attempts per game. Good ball handler and can shoot.
I already went over what this trade needs to look like. It’s Brogdon, Al Horford, Pritchard, and figure out the draft picks. Knowing that Portland really likes Pritchard, the pressure is on Brad Stevens to get this done. No excuse really. This is the path to replacing Marcus Smart and I don’t think the Celtics can win the title without landing Holiday.
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