Ime Udoka recalls his advice to Payton Pritchard when Celtics guard was ‘pissed’ about minutes
"We met a lot and I told him that things happen, be ready, which I knew he always would be."
Payton Pritchard has been open about how his lack of playing time during the 2022 season with the Celtics made him feel.
He mentioned feeling sad and depressed about not getting minutes during an episode of the teams’s View From the Rafters podcast last month.
Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka, who was coaching the Celtics at the time, saw that Pritchard was not happy. He averaged 14.1 minutes per game this season, which was a little more than half the 27.6 he is averaging this season.
“He was pissed about it, for sure,” Udoka said. “I’ve known Payton since he was a kid in Portland and we had Dennis Schroeder, Josh Richardson, some guys that we just signed at the time and so we met a lot and I told him that things happen, be ready, which I knew he always would be.”
Udoka said he preached patience to Pritchard, who at one point had said publicly that he wanted to be traded. He ended up signing an extension with the Celtics and elevating his game, but the road to success was not a straight line.
He played in 48 games during the 2023 season, which was the least he has played in his five-year career. His minutes dipped even further, to 13.4 per game during the regular season.
He had fallen almost completely out of Joe Mazzulla’s rotation in the 2023 playoffs, averaging just 5.6 minutes per game. The Celtics were eliminated by the Heat during the Eastern Conference Finals in seven games last season.
Eventually, Pritchard earned Mazzulla’s trust and played in all 82 games during the 2024 season. He was a major contributor off the bench as the Celtics beat the Mavericks for the title. This season, he is one of the frontrunners for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award, averaging a career-best 14.1 points per game off the bench.
Hard work, patience, and some luck in the form of the players in front of him getting traded helped boost Pritchard’s playing time, Udoka said.
” That’s what you love about him, the edge, the toughness and staying ready,” Udoka added. “So when the trades happened we brought Derrick (White) and got rid of a few, Romeo (Langford) and (Aaron) Nesmith. That gave him opportunities and he was always ready. We knew he would be. Just had to be patient and kind of wait his turn.”
Sometimes, there is a logjam for minutes at a particular position, Udoka said. It took patience, but eventually, Pritchard earned his chance to flourish.
“Keep the edge, be pissed that you’re not playing, yeah, which I like about him. … It was that simple,” Udoka said of his message to Pritchard. “We have these guys in front of you that we just signed and we were trying to figure out our team obviously, first year with myself and that group together with Dennis and some of those rotations that we had.”
“It was just staying ready and I know that about him, that he always will. So happy to see what he’s doing with the opportunity.”
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