If this dude was 6’5 he would be a superstar, he just has a crazy work ethic and mentality
I hardly follow any Oregon sports since I graduated but god damn do I love Pritchard
I was bummed he didn’t have as much playing time last season–i understand why completely, but still.
Every second he was in he was busting ass, hustling all up and down the court. He was always a spark when he came in. Yea, he’s not the biggest dude, but he’s got a lot of heart and he’s not completely undersized as IT(sorry), Ulis, or others of that ilk.
Now we know why they traded Marcus smart
That’s why he got the extension, I see the vision
He’s the type of guy you’d let your Celtics sign.
Talk about staying in competitive shape…physically/mentally/game-wise.
He’s kind of like the Celtics version of Austin Reaves but like a year before Reaves “broke out”
gearing up for round 2 vs Steph
I’ve always had a lot of respect for his work ethic. Offensively he’s usually fine. Defense is where he struggles, but it’s a size issue, not a try issue.
I genuinely would love to see him get to a point where his offense is good enough to keep him on the court regardless of his defense.
I actually think he’s “theoretically” really good on defense. He has quick feet, and his positioning and decision making are really good. He also tries his ass off.
But he’s just small. So players shoot over him or overpower him. Same with Isaiah Thomas. Their defensive fundamentals were great but the size was the handicap.
Conversely I think Giannis has pretty poor defensive fundamentals but he’s just massive and freakishly athletic so he’s effective. If you watch closely, his footwork is relatively poor and he gets cooked a lot but his size and athleticism allow him to recover and still affect the play
I agree with all that. Thats why I said he struggles, not that he’s bad. I don’t think he is a bad defender, but his lack of size causes problems sometimes.
I’ve played and coached at different levels, and I can tell you that it’s pretty common for guys who have atrocious defensive fundamentals get praised as good defenders simply because they are freakish athletes.
I don’t like when people say players like that are “bad” on defense. Because they aren’t really unskilled at defense. They’re just less effective due to their size.
My pet peeve is that people massively overrate size issues defensively.
You mentioned Isaiah, he’s a great example.
He wasn’t a good defender by any stretch but people listed him as the worst defender of all time, said he could never be a good defender and then would turn around and say other short PGs like Chris Paul and Kemba Walker were more respectable because they were at least a little bigger.
Isaiah had the exact same standing reach as Kemba. But one was 5’8 and the other was 6’0.
Not to mention the effort plays a huge role. Isaiah’s height definitely hurt his defence but that same season Russell Westbrook was bottom 5 in the league in contesting shots. Harden was just as bad, a simple screen would leave Houston playing 4v5 defensively.
A 6’3 PG standing 4-5 ft away just isn’t a bigger defensive presence than a 5’8 guy in your face.
But he’s just small.
As for Pritchard, we were actually subbing him into playoff games last season specifically because of his defense.
6’5 Brogdon was dying on screens and both Horford/Williams had to play more drop coverage because of their health. A guard who needs to switch and a big who can’t switch is a really bad combination. So coach Mazzula would periodically try to sub Pritchard into games. We needed someone who could fight over screens and stick to their man.
But Pritchard had DNP’ed so much last season he had lost his shooting rhythm and couldn’t hit the side of a barn, so we’d sub him back out.
He was subbing in for defense and subbing out for offense.
People might also come around on Pritchard’s defense this season because we’re actually using him as a weapon now.
Part of why we’ve struggled on teams like Miami and GSW is because they pressure our wings with smaller guards who might struggle to contest shots but can get in lower and disrupt the dribble, think Chris Paul doing well on Durant historically.
This season we’re running a lot of Pritchard + Holiday full-court presses and it looks like we’re hoping to do the same.
You aight white boy!
Racist
I am not sure playing against D1 and G-League level players does not introduce bad habits and false confidence. There is a huge jump in talent to the NBA and again to starters vs. bench players.
A million times better than all the on-air, 1v0 workouts you see by other NBA players posted to social media
This guy is a basketball maniac.
So excited to see him back in the regular rotation and he looks better than ever. Even more exciting if Queta (or other large lob threat big man) is in the rotation with him cause his two man game is elite.