Teams are competing and not blatantly exercising organizational priorities, and in a culture where we’re waiting for the next “trades we want to see” piece to drop, I like that NBA Cup games take place just after the glorified feel-out games that mark the opening weeks of the season and wrap up just before all of those new contracts become tradeable.

Pritchard logged 20 points (7-13 FG, 6-10 3Pt), two rebounds, four assists and two steals across 26 minutes during Monday's 126-94 win over the Clippers. This was Pritchard's fifth game of the season with at least 20 points.

Before Monday night’s Celtics game, Jaylen Brown threw his support behind Payton Pritchard in the early NBA awards conversation. Responding to an X post asking whether Pritchard should be the front-runner for Sixth Man of the Year,