Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard has made it clear that his focus is not on whether he starts or comes off the bench.
Speaking to CelticsBlog, the reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year said his priorities remain centered on performance and winning.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Pritchard said when asked about Boston’s backcourt rotation. “A lot of things can change in a year – you can start a couple of games, you cannot. For me, it’s about controlling what I can control – and that’s coming into games and changing the game, and being an unbelievable player and helping my team win.”
The comments come amid an ongoing debate among Celtics fans over whether Pritchard or Derrick White should hold a starting spot. Pritchard, however, emphasized that his mindset has never shifted away from competing at the highest level.
“There’s only one mindset, always – I’ve never been on any team in my life where the mindset wasn’t to try to compete for the championship,” Pritchard said. “People can say gap year and all that, but as a competitor, that should never be it, and that’s not the mindset of the city of Boston, either.”
Pritchard’s breakout 2024–25 campaign validated his importance to Boston’s depth. He averaged 14.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.5 assists in 80 games while shooting 40.7 percent from three.
On March 5, he recorded a career-high 43 points against the Portland Trail Blazers, making 10 threes in the same game where Derrick White added 41 points. The duo became the first teammates in NBA history to each hit at least seven threes and score 40 or more points in a single contest.
Pritchard later set an NBA record for most three-pointers in a season by a player coming off the bench, surpassing the 219 mark during a win over the Brooklyn Nets on March 15.
In the playoffs, he averaged 11.9 points in 11 games. His performance earned him Sixth Man of the Year honors on April 22, receiving 82 of 100 first-place votes.
