Celtics' Payton Pritchard Leads Early Voting For 6MOY Award
The Boston Celtics are one of the best and most loaded teams in the league thus far.
The Celtics are loaded from the top to bottom. They have two of the best players in the league, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, on their side. Not only that, but they also have the best player coming off their bench as the sixth man, at least to start the season.
According to a panel of ESPN NBA insiders, Celtics sixth man Payton Pritchard is the leader for this year's Sixth Man of the Year award.
Pritchard has a slight lead with 39 points and 55 percent of the first-place votes.
"He gets a lot less attention than the members of Boston's star-studded starting five, but Payton Pritchard has become one of the Celtics' most consistent players on a night-to-night basis. In 27 minutes per game off the bench, he's getting up an absurd eight 3s a game and hitting 41% of them, and he repeatedly has given Boston a significant lift in games where the Celtics have started out flat," writes ESPN's Tim Bontemps.
Golden State Warriors sharpshooter Buddy Hield is second on the list with 31 points and has 27 percent of first-place votes.
Following these two players are Timberwolves big Naz Reid, Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Rockets forward Tari Eason to round off the top five.
Not only do the NBA insiders think he is the early season Sixth Man of the Year, but FanDuel Sportsbook has him listed at +190 odds to win the award, per Jack Maloney of CBS Sports, the best odds currently.
Pritchard has been great to start the season. He is averaging 14.5 points per game, 2.6 rebounds, and 2.9 assists while shooting 46 percent from the field and 41 percent from three.
His current average of 41.3 percent from three is currently the highest of his career thus far. Pritchard is shooting 8.1 three per game and knocking down 3.4 a game.
The Celtics drafted the former Oregon State Beaver in the first round of the 2020 NBA draft with the No. 26 overall pick.
The former Beaver was spectacular in college. He was named the Pac-12 Player of the Year, first-team All-Pac-12, and a Consensus first-team All-American in 2020.
Pritchard is a major player for the Celtics, and he will be needed throughout the season to continue establishing them as the team to beat in the NBA.
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