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BOSTON — What you see in Celtics guard Payton Pritchard is 30 yards of confidence packed into a 6-foot-1 frame.
What you don’t see are the hours and years of work that transformed that belief from a Lilliputian’s delusion into an NBA champion.
“If you put the work in,” he says, “you’ll have a belief in yourself that, no matter the situation, you can accomplish what you need.”
“He is special in that way,” says Celtics assistant coach/director of player development Craig Luschenat. “Each guy has his own loads they get to quicker than others, but he has a much larger tank than most guys. So, yeah, he’s special. He’s special.”
What you see is Pritchard on Tuesday night against the Cavs saving an errant Jayson Tatum pass from going out of bounds, then driving Craig Porter Jr. to the lane, faking him out of the way and lofting in a shot over the 7-foot-freakin’-1 Evan Mobley.
What you don’t see are the extra practice sessions designed to be far more difficult than just getting up shots.
“It’s a lot of live reads — playing off close-outs, playing off pin-downs. It’s not just catch-and-shoot,” Pritchard tells Heavy Sports of the training often done with teammate Sam Hauser. “Sometimes there’ll be three coaches at a time guarding us, coming off a pick and roll, stuff like that.”
Payton Pritchard: ‘You Can’t Second-Guess It’
At his size, the additional millisecond of quickness that comes from ultra-confidence is critical in getting off his shot — particularly when venturing into the painted forest to challenge the league’s redwoods. While that’s been important, as well, in him becoming one of the NBA’s best 3-point shooters, the lack of doubt is an even greater issue inside. Belief must be placed on the internal computer chip.
“I mean, you definitely can’t second-guess it,” Pritchard says. “Being limited in size, you’ve got to be decisive and confident in what you’re about to do. You’ve got to rock with it, whatever that decision is.
“I’m not thinking about it. Everything happens instinctively.”
And he ascribes to the theory of “earned confidence.”
“Through the work,” Pritchard says. “For sure. I’m a big believer in that.”
But how much of his mind game is factory issue? Jon Niednagel, the so-called brain doctor who used to work with the Celtics, once said Larry Bird and Michael Jordan had similar brain types as serial killers.
Pritchard would seem to fit… at least in terms of the borderline obsessive competitiveness.
“I feel I’m a confident person in general,” says Pritchard, who has no compunction over pulling up from 28 feet to launch a trey (his end of quarter stuff from midcourt and beyond is another story in itself). “But I’m definitely confident just because of the work that I’ve put in. You know, once you put in so many hours, you’re always going to have a belief in yourself that you can do it.”
Celtics Teammates Give Respect
Sitting beside him in the Celtic locker room, Al Horford breaks into a laugh.
“This is who you are, P. You ain’t gotta lie about it,” he says through a smile. “That’s who he is. It’s just like riding a bike. That’s who he is. He’s nice like that.”
Horford is essentially saying his friend is a little nuts — but he’s doing it in a loving and nurturing way.
Pritchard understands.
“Yeah, I knew I had it from a young age,” he says of growing up in Oregon. “I think my parents knew I had it. They knew I was probably a little bit, um …
“At a young age, I was in the cul de sac taking the worst kids in our neighborhood and trying to beat the best kids. My parents used to laugh about it, but I feel like it was always there.”
The desire to embrace the difficult has been key to his development. In his fifth season, he’s become the Celts’ fourth leading scorer (15.3 ppg) and is getting Sixth Man Award buzz.
In the summer, Pritchard will get up 300 to 500 reps most days. In season, it’s 20-30 minutes of intensity. It fits both his personality and Luschenat’s philosophy.
“I’m a big believer in making it as hard as possible, as much failure as possible,” Luschenat says. “I try to make him fail as much as he can during workouts. Every shot he takes is game rep.
“When you’re young, there’s a foundation of skill you need to grow; once you’re out of that foundation, the way I believe you grow on that is by failing and then self-correcting and self-organizing. He does a great job of buying into that and wants to be challenged every day. Our workouts are 20-30 minutes, depending on the day, but they’re going to be very hard, and he does a great job of going as hard as anybody.
“I say it all the time: make practice harder than the game. We try to make his practices as hard as possible.”
Learning From the Best
It helps, too, that Pritchard has studied the workout habits of the game’s greatest shooters. (We wrote in January of 2023 about Steph Curry’s diligent approach.)
“There’s different ways, but what I see is that it’s the consistency of the work that builds the confidence,” he says. “You get it in every day, and through that the confidence builds. It’s compounding a little every day, then over a week and a month and a year, that adds up.”
Luschenat very much agrees with building the investment.
“I think that’s a very vital component, going into any game believing you put in the work and you’ve taken all these shots a million times,” the assistant coach says. “Now it’s time to have no conscience and just let it rip.”
As Horford and the rest of the Celtics know, you don’t have to tell Payton Pritchard twice.
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