2 Trade Suitors Strongly Linked To Celtics’ Payton Pritchard

The Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz could look to acquire Payton Pritchard from the Boston Celtics this summer, according to NBA insider Sean Deveney of Heavy Sports.

Pritchard would like to be traded by the Celtics this offseason, according to NBA insiders Jay King and Jared Weiss of The Athletic.

“Utah is the team that would stand out just because Danny (Ainge) loves him, he picked him,” an NBA exec told Deveney. “That would probably take (Danilo) Gallinari’s deal to make it work, because the Celtics would take back Kelly Olynyk, you’d have to think. They’d probably want a pick from Utah in that kind of deal and that is where things would get sticky—you’d probably need a third team to get that going. But the Jazz are definitely on the look for a young point guard and he’d be on their list.

“Portland is another one, especially if they make a move on (Damian) Lillard. A good shooter who can organize the team would be the right fit there, and the Blazers are looking to add that kind of player, a guy who can shoot and play either guard spot.”

Pritchard appeared in 48 games during the 2022-23 regular season. He averaged 5.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists while shooting 41.2% from the field, 36.4% from beyond the arc and 75.0% from the free-throw line.

The 25-year-old played in 10 postseason games, averaging 3.2 points. The Celtics lost to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals in seven games after reaching the NBA Finals last year.

Boston drafted Pritchard with the 26th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft out of Oregon. The guard has career averages of 6.6 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.7 assists. Pritchard signed a four-year, $10.5 million rookie scale contract with Boston. He will make $4.0 million next season.