The Celtics and guard Payton Pritchard have reached an agreement on a veteran contract extension, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), who hears from Pritchard’s agents at CAA that the two-year deal is worth $44.2MM.

The contract includes one guaranteed year, with a mutual option (both a team and a player option) for the 2029/30 season, Charania reports.

Pritchard, 28, played a key role for the Celtics’ championship team in 2024, then earned Sixth Man of the Year honors in 2025. However, the best season of his six-year NBA career came in 2025/26, as Pritchard took an increased role in the wake of the trade sending Jrue Holiday to Portland and the Achilles tear that sidelined Jayson Tatum for most of the season.

After starting just 17 times in his first five NBA seasons, Pritchard started 50 of his 79 regular season outings in ’25/26, averaging a career-high 32.4 minutes per night. He also established new career highs in points (17.0), assists (5.2), and rebounds (3.9) per game while posting a strong .464/.377/.890 shooting line.

Pritchard, who signed a four-year, $30MM rookie scale extension in 2023, is entering the third year of that contract. He’ll make roughly $7.77MM this season and $8.3MM in 2027/28 before his new deal begins in ’28/29.

Because he’s earning below the NBA’s estimated average salary for this season ($15,163,000), Pritchard’s maximum starting salary on an extension is $21,228,200, 140% of that amount. An 8% raise would result in a second-year salary of $22,926,456, for a total of $44,154,656. Based on Charania’s reporting, it sounds like the Celtics guard will receive those maximum amounts.

More to come…