Payton Pritchard’s NBA Draft Day Extravaganza
Payton Pritchard takes the leap to the NBA tonight, and I don’t think we’re talking about it enough.
Is Payton Pritchard—just a kid from West Linn—an undersized, non-traditional pro prospect? Sure. But I think he’s been gravely misevaluated and misunderstood as an athlete, as a basketball player, and as a winner.
I asked my brother Peter—AKA the smartest NBA brain I know—to fire off some quick evaluations of Payton Pritchard, here’s what he said:
“He’s like Steve Nash, except he can shoot.”
“Guy don’t miss.”
“I saw him a Taylor’s once, but I don’t remember what we talked about.”
Now, these opinions may not be serious or substantive, but I’d still say they are about as accurate and informed as 85% of the mainstream perceptions of our 2020 Pac-12 Player of the Year.
In a more professional scouting report, Alan Lu, Director of NBA Scouting Live, ranked Pritch 41st overall, and projected him going somewhere in the second round.
Now, I googled, “Payton Pritchard draft projection,” and randomly found Mr. Lu’s report, so I don’t know his full reputation as an eye for talent, but his takes will give me something to argue with, so that’s what I’m going to do.
I don’t even really have an issue with Alan’s technical projection—a ton of measured analysts mock draft PP3 in the second round. I am more bothered by the opinions that he leveled in his lazy Pros/Cons list.
He starts his “cons” by saying that Payton Pritchard is an “inconsistent shooter.”
If there is ONE thing that all the talking heads have ignored—and are still clearly ignoring—is the fact that Payton spent his four years at Oregon adding “true shooter” to his resume.
Pritch improved his shot year over year, shooting 46.8% from the field, good enough for fifth in the Pac-12. And his three-point percentage was even greater at 41.5% and second in the conference.
And his shooting percentage only seemed to increase as the stakes got higher. It came to the point late in big moments where you could count on him hitting a shot from anywhere. Ionescu, Curry-like range. Whether it was the Husky game winner, or at Arizona when he hit six threes and a career high 38 points, Payton’s shot was born for the moments that matter.
You can’t teach clutch.
Mr. Lu kept basically admitting that he hadn’t watched a Duck game last year when his second “con” was that PP3, “can struggle to score in traffic.”
Now, if there were TWO things that people are sleeping on when they talk about our boy, it’s that he lives for the traffic. Scouts look at his size and immediately knock him, but we know that this man is a pitbull and a half.
The Michigan game basically came down to Payton driving through his defender, powering through traffic, and finishing at the rim. He scored 15 of Oregon’s last 17 points, and it was clear that he can make stuff happen with contact again and again. If the scouts just gathered around in a room and ran the tape of the last twenty five minutes of that game, there would no longer be any question as to whether Payton was first round material.
Pritch grew into the kind of guy that could drive and finish, or drive and dish in a way that Dillon Brooks could do. Brooks has found his own perfect fit in Memphis where his grit and shooting ability have helped them win games. I have to believe there is a spot just like that for Payton Pritchard.
LaMichael James’ Killer Burger in Beaverton has a sign on the wall that reads: “No one is taller than the last man standing,” and I’d like to think that sums up both LaMike and Pritch pretty well.
Maybe it’s Pritchard’s old age that makes NBA teams (or just analysts) shy away, and move closer to the younger players entering the league. The NBA Draft is all too often like an orphanage in that way.
Matt Prehm from Duck Territory put it really well when he went on the J*hn C*nz*no Show:
“I struggle when I see these mock drafts and I see Nico Mannion from Arizona rated higher than Payton Pritchard. … ‘Did they not watch the games?’ … Arizona couldn’t afford to have Nico Mannion guard Payton Pritchard because if they did Pritchard scored almost 50 points."
- Matt Prehm, Duck Territory
As a Nico Mannion-truther myself, I love when someone in the media has the bravery to say it out loud. Sean Miller and Arizona basketball is given way too much national credit as a program, and the Mannion Hype was always a microcosm of Zona’s inherent fraud status.
Just know that if and when an NBA GM drafts Mannion ahead of Payton tonight, you can rest assured knowing that 1) they will probably be fired within the next three years, and 2) we don’t want Pritch to be involved with any such organization anyway.
If you asked me for a hot take on where our boy will land tonight, I would tell you that late first round would be it. The second round is a bargain for any team.
If you asked me to put money on it?
I would bet the house on PP3 being a lottery pick because I love myself some long odds.
My question to potential NBA teams with an ounce of sense or interest in welcoming Payton Pritchard to their organization tonight—and maybe even in the first round—would be simple:
“If you could draft a more athletic, higher motor Chris Paul, and make him fifteen years younger, why the hell wouldn’t you?”
Go Ducks.