Is Avery Bradley a good defender?

[chenaren]

Avery has been consistently burnt by the opponent's point guard in the last few games. There is no doubt about the effort Avery puts into the defense, but the end result has been very unimpressive. Is it due to his lack of length? Bball IQ?

[Chris22]

Bradley is short and not very strong, and he can't dribble.
Signing him to a big contract was a huge mistake.

[crimson_stallion]

AB was just tasked with defending one of the most dangerous ISO guards in the NBA.  He did as good a job as anyone could have.

There were some points in this game where Bradley's defence on Kyrie was out of this world...lets not focus on the handful of possessions where Kyrie actually scored with Bradley on him.

[dreamgreen]

In many ways yes, but in big situations his stupidity shines and makes horrible fouls.

[GetLucky]

I think he is great in spurts, but his streakiness suggests that it's not sustainable for 30+ minutes on a consistent basis. His defense is mostly effort-related (as he doesn't have superior size or hand speed), and his shooting legs are clearly afffected by energy spent on defense (and vice versa).

I do think he is a little foul-prone. When he was younger, I always dismissed it as "first year rookie/sophomore" call, but the foul rate still seems just as high, and they are often untimely.

[Eja117]

AB is a very above average high energy defender. He may not be all world at this time, but he is a major piece of the defense puzzle.  In all likelihood trading him for almost any other guard would generally result in worse defense. Now it may result in better offense, or passing, or ball handling, but not better defense. 

[TheFlex]

AB was just tasked with defending one of the most dangerous ISO guards in the NBA.  He did as good a job as anyone could have.

There were some points in this game where Bradley's defence on Kyrie was out of this world...lets not focus on the handful of possessions where Kyrie actually scored with Bradley on him.

TP. Bradley is also limited in what he can do knowing that he doesn't have much of a defensive presence behind him. If he plays up on his man aggressively, he has to worry about the pick and roll or a drive to the hoop, which will likely be converted into a made basket given our lack of rim protection. If Bradley plays off Irving or whoever he's guarding too much to protect against the P&R or a drive, he's likely staring down a made jump shot.

It's impossible to keep your man in front of you 100% of the time unless you play way off of him (and thus sacrifice open jump shots). Without a shot blocker behind Avery, he's going to let up some points regardless of the level of D he plays.