You know that feeling when you get a rock in your shoe? Or how about when you can’t find your keys? Or the fly that’s constantly buzzing around you, lands in your ear and you accidentally push it into your ear canal? An annoyance so great that you have no choice to stop what you’re doing and capitulate.
That is Payton Pritchard on defense. Being really freaking annoying is a skill, a talent that can be taught, but some are born with it. Payton was undoubtedly born with it.
But being annoying isn’t enough. If it was, Nick Nurse would be the most successful coach in NBA history. If you want to go from pest to presence on the defensive end, you need to be able to do two things: impact ballhandlers and be effective off-ball. Payton Pritchard has done both this season.
His defensive numbers don’t jump out at you. The Celtics’ defense is about 9 points worse with him on the court than off, but a significant portion of that is unsustainable cold shooting when he’s off the court. Point guards also have comparatively little impact on team defense compared to a center.
Admittedly, players shoot better on shots when PP is guarding them than when guarded by other players.
But the vast majority of that can be attributed to players shooting 9% better at the rim when defended by Pritchard. That should be no surprise when evaluating a 6’1” guard. The flip side is that players are shooting 39% on all shots from further than 15 feet out against him. Much of his weakness can directly be attributed to his height, which limits his ability to affect shooters, especially around the rim. Height might be a limiting factor, but it isn’t the only factor, and Pritchard has become a positive defender in spite of it.
The on-ball terror
First, let’s talk about his on-ball defense, especially at the point of attack. This isn’t a particularly new skill; PP has been feisty on-ball for a while now. This year, however, he’s continued to improve with increased strength and technique.
PP is a straight up bull these days and his quick feet keep him in perfect position to absorb contact and stay square. Like sized players basically have zero shot of displacing him, like trying to throw a balloon into a bathtub to get it to overflow. His low center of gravity seems to almost surprise ballhandlers at the contact point. Here’s Shake Milton trying to go at an in-position and squared up PP.
He bounces off so hard he loses the ball.
“Going up against somebody like Payton is difficult — I’d hate to do it,” Jrue Holiday said of his teammate. “Sometimes, you just like the easy games, especially when you’re in the backcourt, but Payton makes it difficult.”
Now here’s OG freaking Anunoby trying to dislodge him. Not only does Pritchard recover and stay on-balance, but he also almost gets the ball with a sneaky little swipe down immediately after contact, pestering Anunoby even after his drive has stalled out. Anunoby has no choice but to find a kick-out in the face of the mighty PP. He weasels his way out to contest Mikal Bridges immediately after for good measure.
His point of attack defense is bordering on elite — he’s got that dogged in him. He never stops hounding ball handlers the second they touch it, even in the backcourt. I cannot imagine how frustrating it must be as an NBA guard. Perhaps most importantly, he’s gotten much better navigating on-ball screens, never giving up easy switches. Here he is pestering Shake Milton for 50 feet before switching onto Cam Thomas and slinking around Cam Johnson’s weak attempt at a pick.
Unrelated, but man Holiday is good. Pre-switches Luke out of several actions on that play. Beautiful stuff.
On this one he does a good job here of getting around a well-set screen and staying in lock and trail position. It leads to a made three for New York, but that’s not on Pritchard who navigated his responsibilities.
When he does get beat, Pritchard activates Nick Nurse-mode. He gets annoying. Trae Young is a tough cover for everyone, but Pritchard manages to make him uncomfortable even after flailing the wrong direction on Trae’s sweet little move. The result? A steal and the Celtics going the other way.
He’s strong, he’s balanced, and his foot speed has improved over the years. It all adds up to an on-ball defender that’s very hard to go around or go through, which means the only route is to go over. For some players that works, but for most it doesn’t. I mean, how many dudes can stick with Steph Curry like this?
Off-ball improvement
Off-ball, PP has found a way to make himself varying levels of impactful or neutral, depending on the matchup. This is not news, but the Celtics love to switch. That often leaves Pritchard in unfavorable matchups.
One of my favorite aspects of Pritchard’s game is that he seemingly enjoys defending a mismatch. He wants the challenge. He feeds off it; they only make him stronger. And he’s damn strong already. When you’re defending a bigger player, making him work off-ball is key, pushing, shoving, fighting for every inch. Watch how far he forces Jalen Johnson to catch this pass. It’s a far cry from the ways the Celtics take advantage of JJ’s teammate, Trae Young.
This does two things. The obvious is that he’s further from the rim. The less obvious is that because Johnson has to make his move from so far out, it gives Queta plenty of time to read his move and get over to help. No buckets for you, JJ.
While he’s often up to the task, the Cs do an excellent job of protecting him from bad matchups, especially with centers, often with PP himself communicating the need to switch.
It helps when you can yell Jrue Holiday’s name and a 6’5” muscle bound “point guard” can scram switch you off the center. The Celtics have elite tools to empower a defender like Pritchard, and they are not shy to use them. It simultaneously gets the most out of the Celtics’ and PP’s defense.
He’s gotten more impactful as he’s aged as helper as well, especially at the nail. A key to nail help is to impact drivers while staying in position to get back to your cover in the event of a kick out. It’s a delicate balance that takes IQ and technique. Pritchard has developed both.
He does an excellent job of forcing Brunson to kick out to Hart on this play. Instead of flying out to Hart and contesting, which potentially would allow a close out drive, he knows the gameplan. The Cs are more than comfortable with Josh Hart above the break threes, so he glides over, daring Hart to shoot. He does. He misses.
His screen navigation improvement isn’t limited to on-ball stuff either. Here he is making sure the scorching hot Buddy Hield has zero breathing room, like an overly determined horsefly he refuses to leave Hield alone. He breaks up the primary action and the counters before he forces Heild to sheepishly retreat to the opposite corner rendered merely a spacer for the rest of the possession. It’s all Hield can do to get away from this dude.
Payton Pritchard is not a perfect defensive player; those are very rare (luckily the Celtics have, like, 4 of them). But he’s turned himself into a very, very good one. He’s wrung just about as much defensive impact from his 6’1” frame as you could hope. The type of guy that you not only trust to execute the scheme, but trust to hold his own against essentially any matchup short of Giannis.
With his effort, quick feet, strength, low center of gravity, understanding of the Celtics’ defensive concepts, and most importantly, an obnoxiously charming tenacity, Pritchard has earned his role on both ends. He has gained the faith of his coaching stuff, and Joe Mazzulla isn’t afraid to let the dog off the leash.
