Payton Pritchard shared an interesting development at media day.
Speaking with NBC Sports Boston, the Boston Celtics guard revealed that his focus in the offseason was on learning to draw more free throws.
And before you ask, no, that doesn’t involve blatant foul-baiting.
“Honestly, learning to get to the free throw line some,” said Pritchard. “I’ve developed new ways that aren’t foul-baiting, but different ways to put the defense at a disadvantage. There’s really great scorers that are able to get to the free throw line.”
Pritchard added that he didn’t study one particular player.
“I watched a couple of guys, but it wasn’t necessarily like, ‘Oh, I’m going to take what he does,'” he added. “It’s in my live settings and when I’m working, how do I naturally get fouls drawn? That’s me experimenting on my own on different pull-ups, when the guy is in this situation, the ref maybe will call this foul because of where his arms are at.
“For me, it was more experimenting on live defenders and learning to take a risk and draw a foul.”
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Why this is a big deal for the Celtics
First and foremost, Pritchard has developed into one of Boston’s most important offensive players, but he doesn’t get to the free-throw line much.
Pritchard averaged 1.7 free-throw attempts per game in 2025-26, a career high but still a low number for a near 20-point-per-game scorer. His free-throw rate — the number of free throws he attempts per field-goal attempt — was 0.125, roughly in line with the likes of Donte DiVincenzo, Jared McCain, Lu Dort and Jose Alvarado.
Pritchard probably isn’t going to turn into an elite foul-drawer overnight, but getting to the free-throw line a bit more often would help him become an even more efficient scorer.
Secondly, the Celtics barely got to the free-throw line last season. They ranked dead last in free-throw attempts per game, which brings us to our last point.
Want to guess who led the Celtics in free-throw attempts last season? Jaylen Brown, who is no longer on the team.
The problem is, it wasn’t even close. Brown averaged 7.5 free-throw attempts per game, while Jayson Tatum ranked second on the Celtics at 4.9, followed by Derrick White (2.6).
Ideally, a healthy Tatum would make up some of that difference, but he’s never been someone who lives at the free-throw line. (He averages 5.4 free-throw attempts per game for his career.) The same goes for Paul George, who averaged a combined 2.7 free-throw attempts per game over two seasons in Philadelphia.
If Pritchard can find ways to draw more shooting fouls, it could give the Celtics another source of efficient offense while helping replace some of what they lost when Brown was traded.
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