Bradley is in impressive company...

[footey]

AB is outperforming his contract so far, by a long shot.  Wasn't too long ago how many lamented Danny paying him way too much.  Not now. 

[The_Truth]

Oh how times change... 

I was rooting for this backcourt to start for a long time now...

"IT is too short" "Plays no defense" "Smart should start"

Tacoma brothers baby!

It works because this guys know each other for a while now and they both motivate each other to win.

I have nothing against Smart, but he is probably better suited to come off the bench and change a game with his defense.

[colincb]

Of the top 30 NBA SGs in minutes played, AB is 4th in TS% just ahead of Klay Thompson and is 1st in the East.

8th in PER and 3rd in the East behind Jimmy Butler and Derozen.

5th in WinShares/48 and 2nd in the East to Jimmy Butler.

Pretty good case for the ASG.

[colincb]

I think either AB or IT has to come off the bench to have enough scoring for the second unit.

[TheTruthFot18]

It's so much fun having a lights out shooter. It's the first time since we had Ray and PP that I expect a Celtics player's threes to fall.

This is why I loved Ray. Anyone else notice the similar play style off screens? AB seems to do it better than anyone and it brought Ray Allen to mind for the first time in a few years.

AB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoNFhVOLr6I

Ray
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMT3-mnFDes

[SHAQATTACK]

Seemed Middleton was popular last year .

I'm still liking AB .   AB still plays pretty darn good defense ......compared to MANY stars who play NO D TO SPEAK OF   ......Harden I see you ...LOL

[colincb]

It's so much fun having a lights out shooter. It's the first time since we had Ray and PP that I expect a Celtics player's threes to fall.

AB is 6th in 3P FG% among the top 100 players in terms of 3 point attempts. High volume and high efficiency.

[mctyson]

That is some mighty impressive company.

Kinda throws a bio ol' wrench into the the argument from many, if not most, NBA pundits who said Boston didn't have one player who would start on a contender. 

[SHAQATTACK]

Kobe

2.0

[sahara]

Avery shows alot of bravery when he´s shooting. Love this kid.

[Chris22]

Bradley should only shoot and never pass.

[PhoSita]

If he keeps shooting like has has been, he's worth at least twice what he's making now.



Looking at Avery's shooting splits, the only major differences this year versus years previous is that he's taking substantially more three pointers (43% of his shot attempts versus 28% of his career attempts), and he's hitting a crazy percentage on threes (45% versus his career 37%).  Another weird thing is that he's actually taking fewer corner threes this year, and on attempts from the corners he's actually shooting 29%.

Avery has actually been shooting slightly worse than last year on attempts inside (0-3 feet) and just inside the arc (16 to <3).

Elsewhere, his steal percentage is the highest since his rookie season, his assist percentage is back to where it was before KG and Pierce got traded away, his free throw rate is the same as his career average, and his TRB% is the lowest of his career.

All of this is to say:

Avery has done a good job adjusting his shot attempts so that substantially more of his shots come from outside.  His shooting so far this year has been phenomenal overall, mostly due to a huge improvement from outside.  All of that said, he isn't really doing much else that's different from what he's done before. 

This gives reason to feel optimistic that his improvement this year should continue as long as his shot distribution continues in its current vein, but it may not be realistic to expect him to continue to shoot well over 40% from deep.