Payton Pritchard has a wild offseason workout routine in Cape Cod

Payton Pritchard has seen his stock soar with the Celtics since initially arriving in Boston as the 26th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.

He may not be the most imposing presence at 6-foot-1, but the sharpshooting guard has emerged as one of the NBA’s top isolation scorers and bench players. Pritchard, 28, took home the Sixth Man of the Year Award in 2025 before posting career highs in points (17.0), rebounds (3.9), and assists per game (5.2) last season. ​

What Pritchard may lack in physical tools, he has made up for with a grueling workout regimen and dedication to his craft — as ESPN’s Hallie Grossman noted in a feature story on the Celtics guard.

Pritchard’s preferred workout setting is a “humid gym,” and he chooses to get his reps in during the offseason at high school gyms and other spots without the luxury of air conditioning.

“A few years ago, a heat wave slammed West Linn, Oregon, where he grew up,” Grossman wrote. “Outside, temperatures ticked up to 115 degrees, and it grew only more tropical indoors, hitting 120 in the gym at his high school alma mater, where he was conducting workouts. Pritchard came armed with extra towels because even the ball was sweating that day.”

The temperatures aren’t as oppressive on Cape Cod during the summer months.

But Grossman detailed Pritchard’s usual offseason routine, which includes bringing a crop of basketball players across several levels of competition to various high schools around the Cape for grueling workout sessions, sans AC.

“The conditions in his Cape Cod accommodations are temperate by comparison. And anyway, Pritchard likes the muck,” Grossman wrote. “The muck is why he has been recruiting Division II and III basketball players, international guys and hometown buddies to high school gyms for years now.

“They’re not exactly a ragtag motley crew, but they’re not polished professionals either, and Pritchard figures that makes them hungry. He’ll pay for their gas to drive down from Boston to the Cape, or their flights to cross the country or an ocean, because they can be counted on to play feisty, relentless one-on-one defense.”

According to Grossman, Pritchard held these nearly two-hour workout sessions three times a week during the summer. Beyond paying for players to make the trek to the Cape, Pritchard also offers another reward for players who can slow him down.

“Pritchard will do 150 possessions in his elaborate dance around the basketball court — the block, the elbow, the other elbow, the 3-point line, the corner, the wing, the high slot, the middle, the opposite slot — going one-on-one versus a rotating cast of defenders,” Grossman wrote. “They’ll get breaks, he won’t, and if Pritchard shoots under 60 [percent] on the day, his defenders eat like kings at Chipotle and then send him the bill.”

There seems to be a method to the madness for Pritchard, who has continued to evolve as one of the NBA’s more effective scorers off the bench, even with his smaller stature.

As Grossman noted, no player in the NBA had a better effective field goal percentage on isolation plays last season than Pritchard at 58.6 percent — beating out superstar players like Nikola Jokic (57.1 percent) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (56.4 percent).

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.