Payton Pritchard Reveals What’s Motivating ‘Gap Year’ Celtics

Heading into this season, not too many people believed in the Boston Celtics.

After losing Jayson Tatum to an Achilles injury in May, the Celtics blew up their championship-caliber core over the summer, moving on from Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford and Luke Kornet.

Accordingly, many analysts projected a significant drop-off for Boston this season, which had the makings of a “bridge year” where the team shed salary and waited for Tatum to return before reloading. Some predicted they would miss the playoffs or be one of the worst teams in the league.

Instead, the Celtics have barely skipped a beat. They’re 29-17 entering Wednesday’s home game against the Atlanta Hawks, just a few wins off last year’s pace. They’re also the second seed in the Eastern Conference behind only the Detroit Pistons.

According to Payton Pritchard, he and his teammates have used the doubts and criticism to fuel them this season, smashing expectations in the process.

Payton Pritchard on the motivation the Celtics drew from people saying this would be a gap year:

“I feel like it definitely motivated a lot of us to hear people say this is gonna be a gap year.” pic.twitter.com/cs94EUhfEQ

— Bobby Krivitsky (@BobbyKrivitsky) January 27, 2026

“I feel like it definitely motivated a lot of us to hear people say that this is gonna be a gap year because we traded away a lot of players and JT being out, that we weren’t capable, so that definitely was a motivation,” Pritchard told reporters after Boston’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday.

The Celtics are about to get Tatum back soon, too, at which point they could really take off. As good as they’ve been this season, there’s a chance they still haven’t played up to their full potential yet.