The Boston Celtics have too many guards on their roster and should consider moving on from some of them. This was once a good problem to have, but the team is too deep to keep the amount of players they have tied in one position.
The likely candidate for this is going to be Payton Pritchard, who’s already requested a trade from the team but ultimately became too valuable for Boston to lose this past season due to other players getting injured at various times.
The addition of Malcolm Brogdon got in the way for Pritchard to get on the court. He only played in 48 games, averaging 41.2 percent from the field and 36.4 percent of his 3-pointers in 13.4 minutes per game this season.
I say Pritchard is the likely candidate because he’s already expressed that he wants to be traded, but he doesn’t necessarily have to be the guard Boston moves on from.
In fact, it could very well be Brogdon that Boston packages in trade negotiations, keeping a player in Pritchard that they’re still very high on and has a smaller contract to manage. Although Brogdon won the Sixth Man of the Year this season, it’s unclear how well he actually fits in with this group.
Pritchard is entering the final year of his rookie deal this season, in which the Celtics picked up their team option for the second straight year in order to retain him for the 2023-24 season and deal with a restricted free agent situation at the end of next season.
When it comes to trades, teams could be more interested in Brogdon than they are Pritchard. And considering things didn’t go as planned, don’t be surprised if the Celtics are ready to move on from him after only one year if the return is better for the team.
It’s worth mentioning that the emergence of Derrick White could impact Brogdon’s future in Boston as White thrived in a way that Boston expected Brogdon would have when it mattered most for them in the playoffs.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that if Boston does give Jaylen Brown the supermax this year and then again for Jayson Tatum next year, the Celtics will have two players utilizing close to 70 percent of their cap, only making it more challenging to sign and retain players under the league’s new CBA.
That said, parting ways from Brogdon makes sense as it gives Boston more room to re-sign a player that they absolutely need in Grant Williams, who is entering restricted free agency this summer. But it also gives the Celtics the possibility of presenting this idea to Pritchard and assuring him he’ll be the third point guard on the roster without Brogdon here.
Pritchard has been solid for the Celtics in his three-year career. He wants the opportunity to play in real minutes, which he did often during his first two seasons under Brad Stevens in 2020 and then Ime Udoka in 2021 as a legitimate part of the limited rotation in those years, averaging over 12 minutes per game.
Although Pritchard want’s to be out of Boston, there’s still room to sweeten the deal and retain him for another year if the situation changes, which I think it has to with the new CBA and roster retooling the Celtics are going to do this offseason.
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