Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
What else can we say about “Fast PP” at this point? The 22-year-old rookie is legit.
Some believed Pritchard could get a chance to start in Monday’s game with Marcus Smart and Jeff Teague both sidelined, but it was Tremont Waters getting the nod. Waters finished with five points on 1-for-8 shooting with four turnovers. Pritchard was a major spark plug with 23 points and eight assists in 32 minutes.
Oh how long ago the NBA draft seems…
Remember that crazy Wednesday? Tomorrow night marks seven weeks since the C’s shocked–and disappointed–a large and vocal–section of their fanbase with the selection of Payton Pritchard at the 26 spot.
Whether it was guys immediately seeing crypto-anarchist messages in a tattoo*, or just making fun of the guy for looking, basically, like a 50’s NBA role-player, the Pritchard pick was not popular.
Instead, as Grant Williams did last year, Pritchard is showing the value that guys who decline the one-and-done route to the NBA can bring to the game in their rookie years.
There is a huge adjustment going from college to the NBA, but the adjustment is even greater for guys who didn’t even stay in college long enough to second-guess their major, or learn which profs needed to be avoided at all costs. Plus, guys’ bodies can change well into their early 20s. True story: Pants I took to college were too short by the time I graduated.
With the C’s surfeit of draft picks over the past few years, we’ve gotten to revel in the performance of guys who were still in their teens when they started their first games for Boston, but it’s also been fun to watch upper classmen come in and look like veterans.
Grant Williams and Payton Pritchard were both viewed as ‘low ceiling’ guys when they were picked because they were already in their 20s, and indeed, neither is likely to become a perennial all-star, but they’ve both provided immediate value to a very good NBA team.
Pritchard had nine points and three assists, including a hook shot in the lane – a unique weapon for a 6-foot-2 guard. The Celtics made a 22-9 run to erase the deficit and tie the game 36-36 in the second quarter.
With Smart cheering animatedly from the bench, Pritchard had 23 points and eight assists in his 32 minutes. He made eight of 13 shots and two out of four 3-point tries. He made jumpers and floaters and changed speeds on his drives keeping Toronto’s veteran guards off balance.
Pritchard’s game last night showed the value that comes from spending a full four years in a respectable college program: He’s coming into the NBA with a bigger bag of tricks than a one-and-doner. Guys that come into the league early have rarely mastered change-of-pace drives. They simply haven’t had to. If you’re good enough at basketball to join an NBA team before you’re 20, you’ve been able to just blow by almost everyone you’ve ever played against. And adjusting to the NBA as a rookie means adjusting to opponents that are smarter than you and almost as fast–or faster.
And I like that the guy’s got a hook shot. It’s a difficult shot to master because the shoulder & elbow mechanics are totally different than a jump shot, but it’s also a difficult shot to defend. The release point for a hook shot is such that it’s nearly impossible to block without fouling–unless the defender is wayyyy taller than the shooter, and in that case, the shot’s going to be easy to block no matter what. It’s a viable alternative to the up-and-under or the pivot for a guy working in the low post, and honestly, I wish we saw it more often.
The final stat line for the rookie was 23 points and eight assists while playing solid defense against one of the league’s best point guards in Kyle Lowry. As pointed out by Celtics broadcaster Sean Grande, the only other Celtic to hit those numbers in the first half of their rookie season is Larry Bird. That coincidence should set off the appropriate amount of overhype.
…
Control is the operative word. Pritchard isn’t a rookie trying to find his way in the league. He’s a sixth man settling into his role. He’s going to have the rookie experience, as Stevens put it, and not every night is going to have him in the same sentence as Larry Bird. But somehow we are both two weeks into the season and yet 11.1 percent through the season. It’s too early to be confident this is sustainable and also a large enough body of work to believe this is who Pritchard is.
There’s a great clip of Vincent D’Onofrio looking very much like an older Orson Welles, delivering one of Welles’ best quotes:
Ive tweeted this a while ago. I know U Welles fans will enjoy. Ethan& I spent a lot of time in our trailers during Mag 7. Much art was produced by the two of us in those many hrs. 1 example of how actors spend their down time. PLEASE DONATE if U like it. https://t.co/6UtNxtAMUW pic.twitter.com/CVygNwdTtF
— Vincent D'Onofrio (@vincentdonofrio) April 26, 2020
Two of the articles I’ve written for Ars Technica deal with the development of the C programming language and the Unix operating system. Both came about because programmers had to get creative in order to work around some pretty severe constraints. It’s a theme I like investigating: How people find creative ways to solve problems. I’m not a horror movie fan, but The Blair Witch Project is a great example: The filmmakers couldn’t afford the equipment or special effects required to make a conventional horror film, so they doubled down on the limitations of their equipment, and that became a key reason why the movie worked as well as it did.
Pritchard has already made a good start maximizing what he’s able to do with his physical resources, and that’s probably one of the reasons why Marcus Smart is such a big fan of his game.
Smart is 6′-4, albeit a solid 6′-4. Yet guys that are a head taller than him struggle to post him up, because Smart has learned how to make the most of his body. He knows how to position himself in such a way that his opponent’s height advantage becomes a liability, and I’m looking forward to seeing Pritchard build his basketball IQ.
Finally:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJpeE7hA-ig/?utm_source=ig_embed
Yikes.
Tom Westerholm says that’s the Running Man, but whatever the heck that is bears about as much resemblance to the Running Man as Easy Cheese does to real cheese.
The rest of the links
MassLive: Jayson Tatum expects to pass career scoring high soon: 5 things we learned from Boston Celtics’ romp over Raptors | Jayson Tatum dominates as Boston Celtics cruise past Toronto Raptors, 126-114
NBC Sports Jayson Tatum drops 40 points as Celtics dominate Raptors
Boston.com: 5 takeaways as Jayson Tatum and the Celtics roll over the Raptors
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