Jaylen Brown endorses $30,000,000 Celtics guard for outshooting Steph Curry in 3-pointers this season
The Boston Celtics already have one of the most stacked rosters with Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White and Kristaps Porzingis. Aside from these stars, they've also formed quite a deep support system with the likes of guard Payton Pritchard.
Pritchard has established himself as one of the most reliable shooters. In fact, this season, he has made more threes than Steph Curry. Through 21 games, Pritchard has made 78 3-pointers. Meanwhile, Curry has sunk 63, although he's only played in 15 contests.
Jaylen Brown seems proud of his teammate, as he has posted a graphic pointing out this very stat on his Instagram Stories.
Before the start of the 2023-24 season, Pritchard signed his rookie extension worth $30 million for four years (Spotrac). The Celtics drafted him 26th overall in the 2020 draft. Since then, he has been a steady presence off the bench.
Jaylen Brown's teammate Payton Pritchard has improved his scoring average while maintaining efficient shooting percentage
This season, Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard has established himself as one of the most explosive sixth men in the NBA. Through 21 contests, he has averaged 16.4 points per game. This is the first time since entering the league in 2020 that he's averaged double-figure scoring.
Pritchard has also seen an increase in minutes. From 22.3 minutes per game last season, he is averaging 28.0 mpg so far this year. Although, minutes and his scoring aren't the only things that have increased.
As he's seen more action, he has also taken more shots. This season is also the first time that Pritchard is averaging double-figure attempts per game with 11.3 field goals. In his first four seasons, he only averaged 6.3 attempts per game.
Despite the increase in attempts, Pritchard's field goal efficiency has not dropped off. In fact, the percentage of his makes has increased. So far, Pritchard has made 48.9% of his attempts which is a career-high as well.
The same can be said for his 3-point shooting. He is averaging 8.6 attempts from deep. This is a significant increase from the 3.9 attempts that he averaged in the first four seasons of his career. So far, he has made 43.1% of his 3-pointers which is the best clip of his career.
While 3-point shooting has been a major focus for Payton Pritchard, his shots from inside the arc have also been a major part of his game. He has made 65.4% of his 2-point field goals.