The Boston Celtics traded Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George and draft picks. That part is done. The debate about whether it was the right call will run all summer. But for anyone watching the numbers closely over the past two seasons, the writing was already on the wall — and it pointed straight at Payton Pritchard.
According to Yahoo Sports’ Tom Haberstroh, the Celtics were a statistically better team with Brown on the bench. Not a little better. Noticeably better. In games Brown played this season, Boston outscored opponents by 9.4 points per 100 possessions when he sat. When he checked in, that number dropped to 5.7. The offense went from scoring 121.3 points per 100 possessions without him to 119.9 with him. That gap, small as it looks, adds up over a season and a seven-game playoff series.
Those numbers tell a story that gets more interesting when you look at who thrived in Brown’s absence. Derrick White, sure. But the real beneficiary was Pritchard, the 2025 Sixth Man of the Year who quietly put together a monster season.
Pritchard averaged 25.2 points on 51.3% from two and 44.4% from three in the 10 games Brown missed last season. That is not a small-sample fluke. His effective field-goal percentage on isolation plays ranked second among 63 players with at least 100 such plays. He shot 57.7% on those one-on-one looks, trailing only one guy who nobody is catching anytime soon. Meanwhile, Brown posted a 50% effective field-goal percentage in isolations and turned the ball over at a frustrating rate, often on offensive fouls or a loose handle.
This is where the comparison to Jalen Brunson starts creeping in. Four years ago, Brunson left Dallas and stepped out of Luka Doncic’s shadow. He signed with the Knicks and within two seasons was a Finals MVP. Nobody saw that coming at the time. Pritchard is 28, makes $8.3 million next season, and now faces a roster that cleared a path for him to touch the ball every single possession if he wants it.
Is Pritchard on a Brunson-like trajectory?
It sounds ambitious until you realize how similar the situations are. Both guards were buried behind ball-dominant stars. Both showed flashes when those stars sat. Both got a clean break and a green light. Brad Stevens didn’t trade an All-NBA forward without knowing what his internal analytics said about the guy waiting in the wings.
The Celtics won 56 games this season, which was 14 more than preseason projections. Brown deserved credit for that. But the numbers suggest the ceiling got higher the moment he left the floor. Now that he is gone entirely, the question isn’t whether Pritchard can start. It is whether he can be the best player on a team that still expects to compete in the East.
Pritchard plays on arguably the most team-friendly contract in the league. He is 28, entering his prime, and has a skillset — elite catch-and-shoot, improved handle, aggressive rim pressure — that fits perfectly in a system built around spacing and ball movement. The Celtics did not trade Brown to rebuild. They traded him to rebalance. And the guy who stands to gain the most from that rebalance is already in the building.
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