Boston Celtics sixth man point guard Payton Pritchard has heard the critiques from pundits and fans.

Offenses look too uniform, they say. Every shoots too many threes, they say.

When asked by NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin (as noted by The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn) about his feelings regarding the criticisms rocking the league (and, apparently, impacting its ratings), Pritchard did concede that at least some squads took too many triples per game this season. But, he added, that didn’t extend to the reigning champs.

“I feel like some teams should maybe not take as many threes but those teams should not be us,” Pritchard said, per Washburn. “We’re the best at doing it. Why would we change?”

They’re certainly the most frequent at doing it.

Boston does pace the rest of the NBA in triple-tries a night, with a historically prolific 51.3 attempts per game. The Celtics’ 18.8 made treys (36.7 percent) understandably represents the most converted this year, too. Saturday night’s competition, the Chicago Bulls (16.6 made 3-pointers on 44.0 attempts) are a semi-distant second in both categories.

For his part, Pritchard has been chipping in long range missiles at an impressive clip. 9.0 of his 11.5 field goal attempts a game are 3-point looks, and he’s connecting on 3.9 of those tries, which more than doubles his 2023-24 career high of 1.8 made 3-pointers a game. All told, the 26-year-old Oregon product is averaging 16.4 points on .482/.434/.841 shooting splits, 3.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.0 steals a night off the bench.

Although he’s just a reserve averaging 28.7 minutes a night, Pritchard’s 105 made triples heading into Saturday’s Bulls bout ranked third across the entire NBA, behind only All-NBA Minnesota Timberwolves shooting guard Anthony Edwards’ 111 made 3-pointers and Detroit Pistons shooting guard Malik Beasley’s 106. A pair of his Celtics colleagues, two-time All-Defensive guard Derrick White (95 made 3-pointers) and eight-time All-NBA power forward Jayson Tatum (94), ranks within the top seven — at sixth and seventh, respectively.

The 6-foot-1 guard’s 2024-25 run, his fifth pro season, has made his contract look like an absolute steal. The former No. 26 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, Pritchard inked a four-season, $30 million rookie-scale contract extension ahead of Boston’s 2023-24 season. That year, Pritchard fully cemented that he deserved a major rotation spot on the club. He’s stepped it up in a big way with Boston this year, which marks the first of his new deal. It will expire in 2027-28, when he’ll make just $8.3 million.

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