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The Boston Celtics and guard Payton Pritchard agreed to a four-year, $30 million extension, league sources confirmed to The Athletic on Sunday. ESPN first reported the deal. Here’s what you need to know:

• Pritchard, 25, averaged 5.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 13.4 minutes per game across 48 contests last season (three starts).
• The 2020 first-round pick out of Oregon holds career averages of 6.6 points on 43 percent shooting, 2.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists.
• Pritchard appeared in 39 of Boston’s playoff games over his first three seasons in the league.

Flexibility for both Pritchard, Celtics

What a roller-coaster year it’s been for Pritchard. He was out of the rotation for an entire season and now he is the team’s offensive sixth man. Pritchard will likely spend this year coming into the game in the first quarter and orchestrating plenty of the offense. So there was upside for him to put up numbers and command a bigger salary in free agency. But because of his restricted status, it was going to be hard for teams using their midlevel exception to give Pritchard a reasonable offer sheet and hope the Celtics don’t match. Pritchard’s deal, with an annual average value of $7.5 million, is fully guaranteed.

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He has the role he needs at this point in his career on a team that isn’t really positioned to make another trade to push him down the depth chart as it did last year with Malcolm Brogdon. Plus, he remains a viable trade chip if Boston wants to realign its bench for more wing or center depth.

Both the Celtics and Pritchard have flexibility and security in this deal, which helps explain why they were able to get the extension done so early in the preseason. — Jared Weiss, Boston Celtics writer

Pritchard helps shore up backcourt

Pritchard wanted a trade in February. Instead, the Celtics’ offseason moves left him in a position to step into a bigger role and land some contract security. Though he was buried behind a line of veterans on the depth chart last season, the organization believes in him as a solid rotation piece and thinks he should be fully capable of handling more consistent minutes moving forward.

With as much money as Boston has committed to its starting five over the coming years, the team won’t have many resources to use on its depth. Keeping Pritchard, a 40-percent career 3-point shooter, will help shore up the second-unit backcourt for years unless he is eventually moved in a trade.

Though Pritchard was open about his desire to play more last season, the Celtics seemed to appreciate the way he continued to go about his job. He maintained a relentless work ethic throughout the up-and-down season. At media day last week, he said he believes the difficult individual year helped strengthen him mentally.

Though training camp is only a few days old, some of his teammates have singled him out as one of the bright spots so far. Sam Hauser said Pritchard has been aggressive in practices and appears to be “out for blood” this season. — Jay King, Boston Celtics writer

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(Photo: David Butler II / USA Today)

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