Bradley

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Bradley is a player who plays on the edge of the rules, he still makes many mistakes, unnecessary fouls not understand, he is not a starting player to play a playoff, this is the reality.
Bradley should not be starter, he can not act in point guard.

avery IS  a starter. He is a starting shooting guard, not point guard. Rondo/Bradley is the backcourt of the future and you need to deal with it.

Avery is not a legit starting SG either. He is too unskilled and small. If he's the SG of the future, we are screwed.

avery as a starting 2 got us to the  Eastern Conference finals game 7. You realize that right?

[Spicoli]

This guys defense is MIA. His shoulders have no impact on him not pressuring the ball handler full court like he used to. Felton ate him alive. At this point, if Bradley cannot provide any offense while also being roasted on defense, he shouldn't be out on the floor.

Too many minutes and too much responsibility on offense. I think this year has shown that Bradley needs to be the off guard and play fewer minutes if you expect him to pressure the ball.

I still don't think his defense has been bad this series, usually Felton is getting free on high screen and roll or off help due to Melo. Our defense has done its job anyways, C's just can't score for 4 quarters.

I don't understand why he can't play point guard and still pressure the ball handler full court, because all he does as a point guard is bring the ball up past half court and hand it off. He is not initiating any kind of offense while at point guard, so i don't understand why he is not pressuring the ball handlers and forcing them to use up the shot clock before getting in their sets, like he used to.

[Fafnir]

This guys defense is MIA. His shoulders have no impact on him not pressuring the ball handler full court like he used to. Felton ate him alive. At this point, if Bradley cannot provide any offense while also being roasted on defense, he shouldn't be out on the floor.

Too many minutes and too much responsibility on offense. I think this year has shown that Bradley needs to be the off guard and play fewer minutes if you expect him to pressure the ball.

I still don't think his defense has been bad this series, usually Felton is getting free on high screen and roll or off help due to Melo. Our defense has done its job anyways, C's just can't score for 4 quarters.

I don't understand why he can't play point guard and still pressure the ball handler full court, because all he does as a point guard is bring the ball up past half court and hand it off. He is not initiating any kind of offense while at point guard, so i don't understand why he is not pressuring the ball handlers and forcing them to use up the shot clock before getting in their sets, like he used to.

He's still used as a passer and or P&R guy more on offense than he used to. Also he seems to be trying to avoid foul trouble so he can stay on the court.

From a tactics point of view Knicks play 2 PGs a lot, making it harder to pressure maybe backing it off some is due to that?

[CoachBo]

He hasn't been dubbed "Average Bradley" on Twitter for nothing.

He's another young Celtic whose skills have been wildly conflated by the majority of posters on this board.

And he's playing himself right out of next season's starting lineup. Right now, he looks like little more than a defensive specialist you can run out there off the bench against - some - offensive guards. His ballhandling and passing in this series have been nothing short of atrocious.

Obviously not Felton, who is absolutely abusing him.

[EJPLAYA]

Bradley is a player who plays on the edge of the rules, he still makes many mistakes, unnecessary fouls not understand, he is not a starting player to play a playoff, this is the reality.
Bradley should not be starter, he can not act in point guard.

avery IS  a starter. He is a starting shooting guard, not point guard. Rondo/Bradley is the backcourt of the future and you need to deal with it.

WELL THEN! I guess you told him. It's a great thing that Wyc is posting on here letting people know what's up. This MUST be Wyc, because as clear as I can tell he is the only one who is actually in a position to say with certainty that those two are the backcourt of the future. Even DA can't say that since he could be removed and someone brought in that will do what Wyc wants.

I've got new for you though. If they ARE the backcourt of the future, the future will be ugly filled with lottery picks unless we somehow find three great scoring future HOF'ers for our frontcourt. They guy is not skilled enough to be a PG. He isn't big enough to be a 2. Tweeners are a bad idea and rarely work out. It isn't IMPOSSIBLE that somehow he finds an offensive game (see 1-7 today once again) however it is remote. The guy is a backup niche player off the bench plain and simple. I want him on the team, but not as a starter.

[JHTruth]

What's happening to Avery is perfectly predictable. A young player has a run of good games, everyone goes bonkers, declares him the next HOFer. Then teams start to scout and gameplan, he gets more reps and a bigger sample size, and they revert back to the mean.

Bradley is way too small to be a SG, maybe even a PG. When bringing this up before, it was, "Joe Dumars was his size", as if that was the end of the debate.

Bradley is not even a starter on a borderline playoff team at this point. His offense is atrocious, his defense is completely overrated now that teams have adjusted to his play, and he needs to come off the bench.

He has a ton of work ahead of him this offseason to get back to the lineup

[CelticConcourse]

Jeremy Lin, anyone?

[kozlodoev]

Jeremy Lin, anyone?

Jeremy Lin surely got overpaid this season, but he's at least playing as a legitimate, if limited, basketball player right now. Bradley isn't.

[sed522002]

Playoffs have a way of exposing the weaknesses of your players.

 Teams couldn't really scout the "new" C's post-Rondo injury. I was really surprised when teams weren't full pressing our guards on a regular basis, but I knew it was going to happen in the playoffs and I knew it would be a major problem.

AB may have been affected the most from Rondo not being on the court. They really compliment each other and distract the weaknesses of the other player.

He was limited on offense, but we didn't care because he played so darn hard on defense..he was the "savior"..Now that he's not doing both (defensively he's suffering as well)we can really see that he still needs a lot of work.

[KGs Knee]

He's a SG, not a PG.  His play has not surprised me.

When Rondo comes back next year, and Bradley is allowed to go back to his natural SG position, we'll see the return of last years's Bradley.  Book it.

[kozlodoev]

He's a SG, not a PG.  His play has not surprised me.

When Rondo comes back next year, and Bradley is allowed to go back to his natural SG position, we'll see the return of last years's Bradley.  Book it.

So, because he's playing PG he miraculously forgot how to play defence or shoot? Nah. Next year's Bradley will be this year's Bradley, now that the other team knows he's coming, he has turned from a pest to an annoyance. Surprised?

[KGs Knee]

He's a SG, not a PG.  His play has not surprised me.

When Rondo comes back next year, and Bradley is allowed to go back to his natural SG position, we'll see the return of last years's Bradley.  Book it.

So, because he's playing PG he miraculously forgot how to play defence or shoot? Nah. Next year's Bradley will be this year's Bradley, now that the other team knows he's coming, he has turned from a pest to an annoyance. Surprised?

You'll see how wrong you are next year.

[sed522002]

He's a SG, not a PG.  His play has not surprised me.

When Rondo comes back next year, and Bradley is allowed to go back to his natural SG position, we'll see the return of last years's Bradley.  Book it.

So, because he's playing PG he miraculously forgot how to play defence or shoot? Nah. Next year's Bradley will be this year's Bradley, now that the other team knows he's coming, he has turned from a pest to an annoyance. Surprised?

I think I'm more surprised by his defense...he's been doing ok, but man Felton is eating his lunch. And I'm not going to give AB a pass on his defense when I didn't give Rondo one on his occasions. If you can't do anything offensively, at least make it hard as hell for the other guards. That's what's irritating me the most, Felton is the C's killer.

[Atzar]

I wouldn't say he is defending Felton well at all, but a majority of Felton's points come off screen-and-rolls. That's what he has always done well. That's a shared responsibility, and hedgers (i.e., KG) are picking up lots of fouls b/c he and Chandler are difficult to control out there.

At least somebody was watching the game.  No PG can defend the pick-and-roll all by himself.  It's on the hedger to buy Bradley enough time to regain position.  Chandler is an excellent screen-setter and Bradley has a tough time fighting through him.

I do think he'll come in next year with improved upper body strength.  That should help him defend stronger guards and finish at the rim.

[gar]

This guys defense is MIA. His shoulders have no impact on him not pressuring the ball handler full court like he used to. Felton ate him alive. At this point, if Bradley cannot provide any offense while also being roasted on defense, he shouldn't be out on the floor.

Too many minutes and too much responsibility on offense. I think this year has shown that Bradley needs to be the off guard and play fewer minutes if you expect him to pressure the ball.

I still don't think his defense has been bad this series, usually Felton is getting free on high screen and roll or off help due to Melo. Our defense has done its job anyways, C's just can't score for 4 quarters.

I don't understand why he can't play point guard and still pressure the ball handler full court, because all he does as a point guard is bring the ball up past half court and hand it off. He is not initiating any kind of offense while at point guard, so i don't understand why he is not pressuring the ball handlers and forcing them to use up the shot clock before getting in their sets, like he used to.

At one point he brought the ball up the court and had a completely open lane to the basket and he just lamely hands it off to Jeff Greene. Felton didn't have to do a thing except play offense because Bradley was a non entity on offense.