It wasn’t a demotion, per se.
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla didn’t yank Payton Pritchard out of the starting lineup because he was playing poorly. Quite the opposite: Pritchard was on pace for career highs in points, assists and rebounds while helping spearhead one of the NBA’s best offenses.
But when Boston traded Anfernee Simons — its third guard and sixth man — to acquire veteran center Nikola Vucevic, keeping Pritchard on the top unit wasn’t a viable option. Doing so would have left the Celtics without a reliable second-unit ball-handler and tanked their bench scoring.
So, Mazzulla made the call. Second-year wing Baylor Scheierman would start, and Pritchard — after starting each of the first 48 games he played this season — would reprise the role that won him NBA Sixth Man of the Year honors a year ago.
Six games in, that setup has worked wonderfully — for both the Celtics and Pritchard.
Boston entered Sunday’s matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers with a 5-1 record since the Simons trade, with Pritchard scoring at least 24 points in all five wins. His minutes have not dipped (at least 30 in all six games), he’s still part of the team’s closing lineup and he’s been hyper-productive, averaging 22.5 points and 6.4 assists while shooting 52.0% from the field and 42.9% from 3-point range. All of those marks are well above his season-long averages.
The lone dud was Pritchard’s rough showing in a blowout loss to the New York Knicks on Feb. 8 (six points, 2-for-9, minus-27). He responded by leading the Celtics in scoring in back-to-back games, including a 26-point, seven-assist, six-rebound effort in Thursday’s 121-110 victory over Golden State.
Pritchard went 6-for-11 from beyond the arc in that win, hitting deep threes on consecutive fourth-quarter possessions to help Boston survive a late Warriors comeback.
“It was really simple, honestly,” Pritchard said of his new, familiar role in an interview with NBA on Prime’s postgame show. “And the fact is, I sit the first five minutes and then I come in and I play the starter minutes. So at the end of the day, it almost is better because I’m playing longer stints and you get into the flow more and stuff like that. But obviously, we looked at our team. Joe talked to me when we made the trade for Vucevic, we didn’t have a ball-handler off the bench.
“Obviously, (Jaylen Brown) and (Derrick) White can handle that starting unit, but for me coming in, it always leaves at least two of us out there to run the offense and stuff like that. It just makes the offense more fluid, and it makes sense for our team.”
Best known for his 3-point shooting — his 255 3-point makes last season ranked fifth in the NBA — Pritchard also has been one of the league’s most efficient isolation scorers this season. He’s averaging 1.30 points per possession in those scenarios, per NBA player tracking, up from 0.96 in 2024-25.
The 6-foot-1 guard has been lethal from the midrange, too, making 56.8% of his shots from 10-14 feet. Of all players with at least 40 such attempts this season, only reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hits those shots at a higher rate than Pritchard (59.6%).
That’s all carried over through Pritchard’s move to the bench. Over the last six games, he’s shooting better than 60% on 2-pointers.
The Celtics also have gotten encouraging minutes from another former starter: Vucevic.
The 35-year-old big man had started all but three of his appearances over the last 10 seasons, but Mazzulla has used him off the bench behind Neemias Queta since his arrival earlier this month. Though Vucevic also struggled against New York as he adjusted to his new teammates and system, Boston has outscored its opponent by double digits with him on the floor in each of his other three outings.
Vucevic was a plus-11 against Miami, plus-26 against Chicago and plus-17 against Golden State, notching double-doubles against the Heat and Bulls. He’s a proven scorer, shooter and rebounder, and his passing has added a new element to the Celtics’ frontcourt.
“Regardless of if Payton’s coming off the bench or not, he just plays at a level,” Mazzulla told reporters after Thursday’s game. “He just has the ability to impact the game in different ways. So it doesn’t matter where he’s at in the rotation — he’s going to impact the game on both ends of the floor.
“Vuc, he’s just continuing — again, it’s the balance: ‘This is what we need from you. This is how we can make things easier for you.’ So I think you’re seeing the relationship just kind of grow. … His reads versus different coverages, his reads versus different screens are just getting better, and that really impacts him, and it helps other guys, as well.”
The Celtics’ rotation should get even deeper in the coming weeks, as Jayson Tatum appears to be nearing a return from Achilles surgery.