It’s no secret that Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard wishes he had a larger role on the floor this season.
Pritchard’s playing time has been a casualty of a deep and talented Celtics team that has NBA title aspirations. The 25-year-old is averaging a career-low 12.6 minutes per game.
Pritchard still believes he can contribute to a winning squad and if that opportunity doesn’t come in Boston, he wouldn’t mind getting that chance with another team with the NBA trading deadline on tap for Thursday at 3 p.m. ET.
“I mean, it’s not easy,” Pritchard told The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach. “It’s a lot of ups and downs. I think people know I want to play, especially while I’m young still. So that’s my biggest thing, being somewhere I can play, where they believe in me.
“But at the end of the day, I’m here and we have a great team, best in the NBA. I’m very fortunate to be part of that.”
This isn’t the first time it has sounded like Pritchard would like a change of scenery. He recently went on the “Point Forward” podcast with Evan Turner and Andre Iguodala and made it seem like he had his eyes on a bigger role elsewhere.
Pritchard revealed he has had conversations about his future with Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens, who reportedly is assessing Pritchard’s trade value. But the Oregon product is resigned to the fact that those things surrounding the deadline are out of his control at the moment.
“Sure, but, I mean, at the end of the day it’s Brad’s decision, and I don’t really have a say in it,” Pritchard told Himmelsbach. “So, whatever he decides.”
Pritchard has played in 38 games this season heading into Wednesday’s matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers, and was clearly on the outside of Joe Mazzulla’s rotation at the beginning of the campaign. But when Marcus Smart went down with an ankle injury in late January, it opened up more playing time for Pritchard, including being on the floor for 42 minutes against the Miami Heat.
But since then, Pritchard’s played mostly around 10 minutes a game and that number will probably shrink when Smart returns.
While Pritchard, who has one more season left with the Celtics on his contract, could remain a part of a team seen as a favorite to win an NBA title, he’d much rather be in the middle of the action than watching from the bench.
“Not necessarily for me, because I’m a competitor and I want to play,” Pritchard told Himmelsbach. “I’d play this game for no money if that’s what it means, because I love it. So the biggest thing for me is being somewhere I’ll play and really contribute to winning.”
