Report: Boston Celtics ‘appear poised’ to elevate Payton Pritchard to starting 5

Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard was maybe the best reserve player in all of basketball in the 2024-25 campaign. Pritchard connected on a whopping 246 3-pointers off the bench — the most off the pine by any one player in a single season in NBA history — and earned the Sixth Man of the Year award.

In light of his career year and the Celtics’ decision to trade one member of their starting backcourt from a season ago earlier in the offseason, defensive menace Jrue Holiday, Grant Afseth has reported that Pritchard seems to be slated to have a larger role in the coming season.

Reportedly, he is on track to be a starter for Boston, and guard Anfernee Simons will come off the pine.

“The Boston Celtics appear poised to elevate Payton Pritchard into the starting lineup while using Anfernee Simons as a high-scoring option off the bench for the 2025–26 season if he remains on the roster, sources informed FastbreakJournal.com,” Afseth wrote.

“The anticipated shift comes amid sweeping roster changes. Boston will be without Jayson Tatum for the entire season due to injury and has traded away Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis. In the wake of those moves, Pritchard is set to take on a more prominent role alongside Jaylen Brown and Derrick White.”

With Tatum set to miss a significant chunk of time with an Achilles injury he suffered in the 2025 NBA Playoffs, the Celtics are going to need someone to step it up from a scoring standpoint, and maybe Pritchard is ready to do just that.

Last season, he averaged 18.1 points and 4.0 made 3-pointers per 36 minutes of action. It’s not as if he put up those numbers per 36 minutes on a losing team, either, as the Celtics won 61 games in the regular season and ran roughshod over their competition for much of the campaign.

Pritchard has already staked his claim as a highly valuable complementary piece for Boston, and the Celtics have him signed at an incredible value for what he brings to the table. The 27-year-old is under contract through the 2027-28 campaign, and he won’t make more than $8.3 million in any one season for the duration of his current deal.

The former University of Oregon standout can further cement himself as one of the best contracts in the league and help the Celtics keep their head above water in the Eastern Conference without Tatum with another career year in the 2025-26 campaign.

Assuming Afseth has read the tea leaves accurately and Pritchard ends up starting for the Celtics, it seems within the realm of possibility that he ends up in the conversation for the Most Improved Player award in his sixth season in the NBA and with Boston.