Celtics News: Payton Pritchard Name Drops NBA Legends He Played While in High School

The Boston Celtics have a lot of expensive contracts on the books for the next few years. Jayson Tatum is making $313 million over five years. Jaylen Brown is making $285.3 million over the five years his contract runs. Jrue Holiday commands $134.4 million over four years. Derrick White also gets $118 million over four seasons.

As you can see, the Celtics have a ton of massive contracts. Those expensive contracts make it very hard for Boston to make trades this season because they are a team over the second apron of the luxury tax. That means they will have to rely a lot on the guys they already have.

One contract that is not expensive, and quite frankly a bargain, is the contract of Payton Pritchard. He is making just $30 million over four years. He has been by far their best player off the bench, putting up 15.3 points per game while also shooting 41% from three.

Perhaps part of the reason why Pritchard has been so good is because of the players he used to play against in high school. He used to play against one of the most underrated guards in the NBA.

"You know, growing up, when I was going into my sophomore of high school, Steve Blake was still in the league and he lived in my hometown. So we used to play one-on-one every day. So honestly, I probably took things from him."