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White is one of three Celtics to finish in the top six this year, joining Jaylen Brown and Payton Pritchard. Their upper-tier finishes have something to do with the Celtics overcoming Jayson Tatum’s absence for most of the season to defy expectations and finish with a 56-26 regular-season record. One of the players who voted for White said: "Everyone is trying to say Jaylen Brown is an MVP candidate. They're wrong. White has actually been the biggest reason they're so good this season. He does everything — offense, defense, leadership — for them."
Noa Dalzell: Asked (a very visible disappointed) Payton Pritchard how he balances processing a 56-win season with this outcome: “Just because you don't win a championship one year doesn't mean it didn't build for the next championship. So, when we won Banner 18, four years before that, we lost four straight — lost to Miami, lost in the finals. So those might have been disappointing years, but maybe those led to the championship. So, that's how I look at it.”
Asked (a very visible disappointed) Payton Pritchard how he balances processing a 56-win season with this outcome:
— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) May 3, 2026
“Just because you don't win a championship one year doesn't mean it didn't build for the next championship. So, when we won Banner 18, four years before that, we… pic.twitter.com/Ow3sxKhSfw
StatMuse: Celtics 3-point shooting in Game 7. Jaylen Brown: 3-9 3P Derrick White: 5-16 3P Baylor Sheierman: 0-3 3P Payton Pritchard: 2-7 3P Hugo Gonazlez: 0-3 3P Jordan Walsh: 0-2 3P Ron Harper Jr: 0-1 3P Luka Garza: 0-2 3P Sam Hauser: 3-6 3P Mazzulla ball.
Noa Dalzell: Payton Pritchard on the mindset after this loss: “I mean, it's disappointing. Every game you lose in the playoffs is disappointing. But the playoffs — every series is life of its own. You never know when you're gonna get it done. So, you gotta move on & get ready for Thursday.”
Payton Pritchard on the mindset after this loss:
— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) April 29, 2026
“I mean, it's disappointing. Every game you lose in the playoffs is disappointing. But the playoffs — every series is life of its own. You never know when you're gonna get it done. So, you gotta move on & get ready for Thursday.” pic.twitter.com/oWfzPR2WQR
Mike Gorman: Payton Pritchard makes me want to come back! ☘️
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In that spirit, Payton Pritchard hired a personal chef at the end of last season. He does whatever he can to treat his body well. He has added exercises to a stretching routine that he prides himself on doing, no matter what’s going on in his life. He has cut out drinking alcohol and limited how much bread he eats. Despite a sweet tooth, he has dropped cookies and milkshakes from his diet. Sometimes he will eat strawberries with a little bit of whipped cream instead. “That’s a better alternative,” Pritchard said. “Those differences over time build up.” Pritchard said changing his sleep habits worked. He tweaked his routine after games. He put away his electronics before bedtime, focused more on his hydration and at times used magnesium drinks. He believes it helped him play 79 games and gave him more energy throughout the regular season. “It’s stuff that everybody talks about,” Pritchard said. “But it’s like, can I do it?”
Jaylen Brown: “Payton’s been big time. We call him Big Shot Bob around here. He just makes timely plays, timely baskets. Those rebounds are big for us. His development has been great as well. Sometimes it has fallen under the radar with all the other guys that we have, but Payton has been very significant to our success. Tonight was an example of that. In his minutes, he just won every little play, and on top of that, made some big shots. Big-time game from Payton.”
Gary Washburn: #Celtics get a gritty 108-100 win over the #76ers, Jayson Tatum with a pair of 3-pointers in the final 1:57 to seal it. BOS leads series 2-1. Tyrese Maxey scored 31 for PHL but just 2 in the final 8:42. He looked exhausted. Jaylen Brown 25, Payton Pritchard 15, Nikola Vucevic 11, Derrick White 11.
Anthony Edwards, Naz Reid and Jaden McDaniels have been together for six seasons, an eternity in the turnstile NBA. They have played 382 regular-season games together since uniting in 2020, 113 more than the next closest active trio: Boston’s Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard and Derrick White (269 games), according to Elias Sports Bureau. They’ve reached two straight Western Conference finals, unprecedented success for a franchise that has spent most of its existence toiling in dysfunction and self-pity. “It’s pretty cool. It’s like going to high school freshman year with your friends and just sticking together the whole way, building each year,” McDaniels said. “Each year we’ve been together, we’ve gotten better and went further (as players) than we have the previous season.”
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On a sunny August afternoon, I sat down with Payton Pritchard to discuss the reality that the upcoming Celtics season was being widely deemed a Gap Year. He laughed. “There’s only one mindset, always,” he told me then. “I’ve never been on any team in my life where the mindset wasn’t to try to compete for the championship.”
His pedigree of winning began much earlier than the pros. In college, he was the starting point guard for the Oregon Ducks for four straight years, during which time his team won 70% of its games (and the PAC-12). In high school, the Oregon native won four straight state championships. Why would things change now? “We’ll put the pieces together,” he told me. “And we will come out and compete, and try to win every game, and put together a great season – and go for a championship.”
It’s the right thing to say, of course. What kind of competitor would relent to the notion that an entire NBA season was a wash? But I could immediately tell that he wasn’t just saying it because that was the right thing to say. All summer, I had chatted with people around the NBA — media members, executives, scouts, coaches — and almost all of them warned me I was in for a long season of losing, a significant departure from my first two years on the Celtics beat. A 10-minute conversation with Pritchard almost single-handedly convinced me otherwise — as ridiculous as that may sound. The then-27-year-old was back in Boston, where he had begun working out with the other Celtics youngsters after spending most of the summer on the Cape with his wife, Emma. He was already getting to know the new guys and reuniting with the same Celtics coaches who led the team to 61 wins the year prior.
On this particular day, Pritchard hosted a 1-on-1 basketball tournament at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury. Afterwards, we caught up, and I began to broach the topic of the year ahead. When I said the word “Gap Year,” Pritchard’s face quickly changed. He looked at me in the most matter-of-fact way he could, his eyes widening. “It’s not a gap year,” he said firmly. “It’s a year to prove something, take a step, and show people that we are still that team.”
