This article was originally published on www.si.com/nba/celtics/onsi as Celtics Guard Predicted to Have Breakout 2025-26 Season. Reigning Sixth Man of the Year Boston Celtics point guard Payton Pritchard is one of the few healthy meaningful holdovers left from the club's latest championship core.

SportsLine's model simulated Boston Celtics vs. Philadelphia 76ers 10,000 times and revealed its 2025 NBA Cup picks

The former Celtics big man will have to work his way into Portland’s rotation. The Blazers have leaned on Donovan Clingan as their starter thus far, with Duop Reath and first-round pick Yang Hansen coming off the bench. It’s unclear how Williams fits in the front court, but getting him back on the court is still a positive sign.

Headlined by AJ Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer, non-contending teams around the league will undoubtedly be tempted by the notion of tanking for a potential lottery pick. The Boston Celtics could be one of those franchises,

"The challenge is they're going to come with a different mentality," Justin Edwards said. "We beat them at home in the opener. We just got to try to build off of what we did last game and then add the pieces that we have and the film that we've been watching just trying to put into the game."

On Friday night, the Philadelphia 76ers will welcome the Boston Celtics into the Xfinity Mobile Arena for the opening match of the NBA Cup tournament. The Sixer

After the exit of Jrue, Horford, Kornet, and KP and their replacement by Minott, Queta, Garza, and Simons has required the Celtics to shake up their offensive playbook.

Josh Minott and Hugo Gonzalez have both been strong additions to the Celtics rotation, with the former seemingly earning a starting role after multiple impactful performances. Of course, we're still early in the season,