Payton Pritchard has not missed a shot from the field or beyond the arc in his last two games, so to get a broader view of his performance of late, I looked at his last five games, expanding his numbers to per-36-minutes status.
Pretty good, right? Ime Udoka actually had Payton out there for an average of 17.6 minutes per game during that 5-game span, but that number was elevated to 20.0 MPG in the last two contests. Ime may be seeing more value in having the undersized guard out there.
By the way, that plus/minus number (+26.1) ranks 12th in the NBA over that span, and that rank soars to 1st place for players also playing all five games in that same time frame. We know that wins and losses are the real indicator of team success, and the Celtics are 4-1 over that span.
As I have already indicated, Pritchard only fulfills half of the "shooting with size" wish expressed by Brad Stevens, but if if an undersized guard can score significant points off the bench without hurting the Celtics hallowed defense, why not give Payton minutes in the 22-24 MPG range? We may start seeing just that.
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