Pritchard leads league in isolation scoring despite bench role

Payton Pritchard leads the NBA in effective field goal percentage on isolation plays. Last season, his mark stood at 58.6%, a rate higher than any other player in the league.

He outperformed Nikola Jokic, who shot 57.1% from the field in isolation. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander recorded a 56.4% rate, while Luka Doncic finished with 55.8%. Pritchard’s efficiency places him above the league’s premier scorers in this specific category.

According to Stat Defender, Pritchard averaged 1.30 points per isolation possession at the midpoint of the 2025-26 season. That pace would have ranked as the highest total for any player in the past decade. For the full season, NBA.com lists his output at 1.11 points per possession, which ranks third in the league behind Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander.

Pritchard often enters games from the bench. He won the Sixth Man of the Year award two seasons ago. However, he started 50 games last year when Jayson Tatum missed time due to an Achilles injury and Jrue Holiday departed for Portland. He functions as a starter in capability, though he retains the role of a bench player in many lineups.

Celtics assistant coach Sam Cassell describes Pritchard as 6-1 soaking wet. The description captures his physical presence on the court. Pritchard does not rely on height or length to dominate opponents. Instead, he uses repetition and specific drill work to refine his skills.

His offseason training takes place in high school gyms on Cape Cod. These locations often lack air conditioning. In June, Pritchard works out at 6:45 a.m. in a humid gym at a high school on the southeastern tip of the Cape. He drives there with his trainer, Michael Soares, who opens the locked doors.

Pritchard recruits Division II and III players, international athletes, and local friends to defend him. He pays for their travel expenses to ensure they arrive hungry. The sessions last nearly two hours and occur three times a week. He performs 150 possessions, moving through the block, elbows, three-point line, and corners.

If Pritchard shoots below 60% during a session, his defenders receive a meal at Chipotle at his expense. He views this as a fair trade for the volume of live one-on-one looks. He aims to file these interactions into a mental archive, analyzing how he creates space and reacts to defensive pressure.

Dave Lewin, the Celtics' assistant general manager, compares Pritchard’s method to Kyrie Irving. Lewin spent the early part of his career in Cleveland and observed Irving playing one-on-one at night. He identifies Pritchard and Irving as the two players who have most consistently used one-on-one play as a form of skill development.

Pritchard began this approach in high school in West Linn, Oregon. He trained with former NBA player Steve Blake, who picked him up three or four times a week. Pritchard lost to Blake every day during that summer. He also practiced dribbling with weighted balls until his hands bled. He used lunch periods for plyometrics and class time for hip mobility work, citing Russell Westbrook’s athletic leap as a model.

The discipline shows in the playoffs. In Game 4 of the first round against the Philadelphia 76ers, Pritchard scored a career-high 32 points. He hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer at the end of the first quarter. In Game 3, he sank a step-back 26-footer as the clock expired to seal the win. Allen Iverson, who watched from the stands, called him the coldest white player he had ever seen.