In the NBA of late, life comes at you fast. After helping the Boston Celtics hang Banner 18 on a vet-heavy roster, Celtics point guard Payton Pritchard now finds himself among the longest-tenured members of the team with the mass exodus of Al Horford, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Luke Kornet in the 2025 NBA offseason, and the trade of star forward Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers this summer. And to Pritchard, that means he believes he and the rest of the team will find themselves working to prove doubters expecting Boston to sink in the standings once again despite having dispelled such notions last season. "I feel like we have another year that we have to prove it," said the Oregon native in a recent interview with NBC Sports Boston senior reporter Chris Forsberg. "I thought (in the) regular season, we did a great job last year," continued Pritchard, "and we started off slow. But in the playoffs, we didn't have the playoff run we wanted. To let a 3-1 lead slip – which eats away at a lot of us this summer, so (we have) added ... motivation going into summer to attack it and come back better and try to improve."
And while expectations for Boston may have dipped, we have heard takes that Pritchard may make the sort of leap this season that has him being compared to New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson. "Honestly, I don't really think much of it," he said. "I don't really try to dive into what other people try to put onto me." "My only thought is finding new ways to better myself and get a little better and help my team win. So if I look at the end of this year and I see I take a jump, I took a jump, then that was a positive year and I'm going in the right direction. So that's the only thing I'm focused on is just bettering myself and letting the outcome show." .oembed-frame {width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;border:0;}
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Listen to "Havlicek Stole the Pod" on: Blue Wire: https://tiny.ee/CdKp iTunes: https://tiny.ee/RK47 YouTube: https://tiny.ee/cOW3 This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Payton Pritchard thinks Boston Celtics in another prove-it season, downplays Brunson comps