the more I think a Smart+Bradley back court ctually makes more sense than a Smart+Rondo or a Bradley+Rondo backcourt.
You would only have the Bradley backcourt 70% of the time. That is right folks the rest of the time he is injured! He needs to sign for less than 6 Mil for this fact because he is unreliable from a health standpoint.
First of all, Rondo / Bradley was not ideal and Rondo / Bayless was certainly no better. I think Rondo / Smart and Rondo / Young are both better long term options. If Bradely stays, then we can pair him with Smart. We can even go small with Young at the 3. In short, Smart is the combo guard that we have been looking for and Young gives us additional size and flexibility. Even if Rondo & Bradley stay there is no guarantee we can keep both long term and Smart and Young will take time before he can contribute on a regular basis. Great Job Danny!
But how much of a sample size do we really have to just the Rondo/Bradley combination?
Early in his career Bradley barely got playing time, so barely got to play with Rondo.
In his second season he got some good playing time, and the Rondo+Bradley combination was straight out dominant, until Bradley left with the shoulder injury just before the ECF started.
In his third season Bradley took a while to return from his injury, so at the start of the seaon Rondo was on the court without Bradley. When Bradley finally did return and join forces with Rondo, the Celtics went on a huge winning streak. Not long after this Rondo got injured and was done for the season, forcing Bradley to play out of position at the PG spot (which hurt his production significantly.
In his forth season the Celtics started without Rondo, and Pressey started at PG so that Bradley could finally stick to his natural SG spot. As a result, Bradley improved dramatically and emerged as Boston's #2 scorer - a real break out year. But Rondo didn't return until about half way in to the year, and when he did he was not the same player. It took time for Rondo to really start getting back to being even 80% of his former self, and by that time Bradley was out with injury again.
To be honest, I think the Rondo + Bradley combo has (in the smallish sample size) been a very effective combination. We just haven't seen enough of that combination for it to really shine through to team success.
I think the Smart + Bradley combiation, a couple of years from now, could be even better. But alas, we'll see what happens.
I agree that Bradley's injury history is a concern, and unquestionaly will restrict his value on the market. I don't think he'll get a $9M deal, as some reports are suggesting, but I think he will get $7M. If a particular team really likes him however, don't be suprised if they throw him a crazy deal that they know Boston can't/won't match just to secure him, much like Houston did with Lin and Asik (whom the Knicks and Bulls really wanted to keep). Avery Bradley is better than Jeremy Lin, so a crqazy deal is not out of the question.
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