I’m finding it very difficult to not take a victory lap on Pritchard. I believed PP could become a Fred VanVleet type player if he consistently played with both pace, force, and confidence. That is what we are seeing this season. He might get hunted in the playoffs, but he has looked a lot better at fighting bigger players on switches, from initial positioning to the actual back down. Last night he had some success when switched onto DeRozan.At age 26, he has serious core strength. Boxing out Andre Drummond isn’t an easy task, but he managed to pin he legs with a low base for a big Celtics rebound when the game was close.
Dan Greenberg from Barstool pointed out that PP’s numbers over his three starts are similar to those of one of Steve Nash’s MVP seasons. Of course, it is a ridiculous stretch comparing three games to an entire season, but PP is doing some Nash-like things, like keeping his dribble alive as he drives to the basket and there’s no room to get a shot off, so he just continued across the baseline until he drops a pass into the paint of kicks it out for an open three. He is also a lot better at getting his shot off in the paint, showing an array of techniques we haven’t seen much of in the past, including fallaways, up and unders, and shoulder bogarting bigger defenders.
it’s ridiculous that one team can have DWhite, Jrue, and PP to run offense when needed. It will be devastating to me if Boston can’t retain both White and Jrue, but having a fully realized Pritchard will lessen the hurt.