Payton Pritchard plays basketball with the erudite confidence of your favorite professor going over the syllabus on the first day of class. He doesn’t take threes; he swaggers into them. He doesn’t finish at the rim; he concludes at it. He doesn’t play defense; he menaces it.
Like a sous vide steak, the surface doesn’t look all that appetizing, and then you cut into it. 9.6 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.4 assists doesn’t exactly scream “good player.” Instead, they use their inside voice to affirmatively declare “good bench guard.” That alone is a boon for the 26th pick, getting someone that can play solid minutes and isn’t unplayable in the NBA Playoffs is a win, but Pritchard is more than that.