Avery is our starting shooting guard. always has been, always will be.

[rondoallaturca]

I found both those posts interesting. Agree they're both above-average, Bradley probably "better" in broader variety of situations.

The main concern I had with Lee was his mentality. He seems to over-think things, become easily anxious or rattled, which affects both ends on the floor. I remember someone here posted that they went to a game during the season and thought, up close, that Lee looked "very shaky" throughout. Made a lot of sense, pretty validating.

And you can thank Doc Rivers for that. No one can confidently say that Lee could find his groove at any point last season. Doc is a guy who expects players to adjust to his system, and not the other way around, and Lee's one of those guys who just didn't really fit. Do you blame Lee? I hardly think that's fair. Even a veteran like Jason Terry found himself uncomfortable and shut out in Doc's system, and he wound up having one of his worst seasons ever. I think we'll be seeing a much more confident Lee this season with Doc out of town.

Doc was especially ignorant with Terry.  How about not using a 14 year vet whose game has been built around shooting off the dribble like Ray Allen just because off-the-ball movement plays were in the playbook.  It blew my mind that Doc tried to make Jason Terry into Ray Allen.  Why sign Terry and say he'd bring the pick and roll ability they wanted to supplement Rondo and Pierce if they weren't going to use him in that manner for most of the season?

And just as stupidly, Doc actually designed plays so that Terry would have to dribble to his left.  For his entire career, defenses have tried to force Terry to his left hand because of how he shoots over his right ear and there was Doc, doing the work of the defense for the opponent.  Just a simple thing like having Terry dribble toward a screen from the left side of the court couldn't be implemented.  This isn't rocket science.

What especially blows is the fact that when I initially heard we got Terry to replace Allen, I was ecstatic. Allen is the better player, but Terry solved our flaws so much better. He's a better playmaker and could potentially relieve Rondo as the PG, and he could create his own shot a lot more effectively which was huge for a C's bench that often went stagnant. Of course, Doc didn't use Terry to fill either of those holes. Instead, he simply created even more by forcing Terry into a Ray Allen role he couldn't fill.

[GreenEnvy]

avery haters are weird. He was given 2nd team  all defensive team for a reason, because hes a great defender. it wasnt shananigans. its crazy how our own fans turn against a great player we have.

Undoubtedly a great defender.

Equally undoubtedly a bad offensive player.

Can't run point. Too small. Ehh. Like him, don't love him.

Bottom line is I wouldn't build around an undersized defensive SHOOTING guard.


Green and Sullinger are the only players whose talent and age warrant keeping on roster for the future unless blown away.

[bleedGREENdon]

Idk why everyone on this board thinks Avery's offense is terrible, were not talking Ben Wallace here, avery can score hes just not going to be an elite scorer by any means, but when he played with rondo and when doc made the decision to start him over ray allen, avery was dropping 10-12 points a night running up and down with rondo, finishing. This year he showed his improved 3 point shooting, i believe he scored close to 20 once this year, he averaged almost 10ppg this year, without rondo aka he was doing most of the ball handling, he isn't going to be scoring when running plays for pierce and Garnett lol.
He can be a legitimate starting 2 guard on a championship team because he can lockdown players 6'6 and under and thats usually what a 2 guard is at. We dont need avery scoring 20ppg. We need his defense and his energy and his 3 point shooting bad improved and can continue to improve, he was a top tier player coming of highschool the kid can score you guys need to lay off of him. Hes exactly what Danny wants at the two guard and him and rondo back/court of the future is [dang] good and possibly if rondo gets back to his high energy defensive days we have the best defensive backcourt in the nba. Danny knows this. Ya should start acknowledging this.

[LooseCannon]

Idk why everyone on this board thinks Avery's offense is terrible

I am a huge proponent of Bradley, but I can see why someone would think his offense is terrible.

[Vox_Populi]

Sorry, but Rondo's D last year was horrible. When Bradley returned, they both looked very good together defensively, but other than that, Rondo was a disaster defensively whether it be from injuries (which he had some) or effort, or fatigue. But as critical as I've been of his defense philosophy, last year was by far his worst showing of his career in this department.

Interestingly enough, Rondo's defensive rating last season was 100 according to NBA.com/stats and 103 according to Basketball-Reference. He was 39th overall according to Synergy. The eye test is misleading sometimes. Numbers are an objective reference and these show Rondo's defense wasn't a "disaster".

I'm not saying he played great defense, even I thought he allowed too much dribble penetration, but I do think that Rondo's defense, or lack thereof according to some, is being blown out of proportion. Although I'm not disputing it's the worst I've seen from him.

[chambers]

He's great but he's not good enough offensively at the moment to be the starting shooting guard on a championship team

[tarheelsxxiii]

We should all be best friends.

[D.o.s.]

He's got one transcendent skill--disruptive full-court point guard defense.

[lightspeed5]

avery haters are weird. He was given 2nd team  all defensive team for a reason, because hes a great defender. it wasnt shananigans. its crazy how our own fans turn against a great player we have.

Undoubtedly a great defender.

Equally undoubtedly a bad offensive player.

Can't run point. Too small. Ehh. Like him, don't love him.

Bottom line is I wouldn't build around an undersized defensive SHOOTING guard.


Green and Sullinger are the only players whose talent and age warrant keeping on roster for the future unless blown away.

he cant run point because hes not a point, hes a shooting guard. Ask Wade if avery's height mattered.

[Edgar]

About Avery--
Hes a decent 2 a good defender and now he has the run to shor if he larned something
see Green and Beal (a s much as i know green is bigger)
I am the positive positron here
hopefully he will surprise us but he is limited and sometimes erratic

[Celtics4ever]

I would be willing to bet you money at some point we will upgrade.  He is a mediocre shooter, can't play point but I love his defense.  We have a lack of scorers and can't afford to play 4 on five all the time.  RR is  not a good scorer either.  Neither of these guys can spread the D.   

As for the always has thing.   Ray put him on the pine and AB could not hold Jo Jo's jockstrap.  AB is a great defender though.   But he needs to grow his jumpshot some more.

[twistedrico14]

I like AB. I really hope they stick with him.

[CFAN38]

I really like Avery, however the 2 spot needs to be upgraded moving into the future.

Im not saying move Avery. I envision a 3 guard rotation with Rondo the PG, Avery the 2/1, and a third guard who is more a scoring 2 with some size. In a three guard rotation each player gets 32 min a game. If the scoring 2 can drop to play say 10 minutes at the 3 then they average 35 minutes each.

In this rotation I would make Avery the 6th man.

[Monkhouse]

Give Avery 1-2 years to develop. If there's nothing to see expect the Grizzlies to offer a 4 year 42 million deal for him in exchange for an expiring TA lol.

I'm optimistic about Avery though. He works hard, and even through injuries, his motivation to keep playing hard nosed defense didn't back down until he was seriously hurt.

He's going on a offensive training program with a trainer who has done wonders. Hopefully he improves his mid range game, and his 3 pointer. I'd love to wet mid range jumpers with him in 2K13. Lol, it's so easy, the moment you leave AB open... You already know he's wetting that.

[Evantime34]

Projecting Avery Bradley in the future takes some vision. Sure he had a down shooting year, sure he got abused in the playoffs and sure he is undersized for the position but you have to take other factors into account.

1. Bradley shot 31.7% from 3 last year, after coming back mid season due to shoulder surgery thus preventing him from working on his shot in the offseason. He was a 40% shooter the year before. It's not unreasonable to think that with a full off season of getting shots up he can at least split the difference and shoot around 35% or 36%. If he does that the complaints about his shooting would go away.

2. From watching Bradley it looks like the surgery on his shoulders caused him to lose a considerable amount of muscle mass. This hurt him defensively more than anything, in that he would beat guys to the spot and they would shoot over him/muscle through him to get a shot. This happened significantly less the previous year. To me it stands to reason that he will bulk up in the offseason and decrease the number of times it happens.

3. HE IS NOT A POINT GUARD. To me his playoff struggles had to do with him being overwhelmed running the point, which caused him to play tentative on defense. That and the decision not to help on pick and rolls so shooters weren't left open really hurt him defensively in the playoffs. During the regular season he was an elite defender. If you don't think so I have a bunch of metrics that would say otherwise.

4. I've always felt that you can tell how hard a player works on his game by how much effort he plays with in actual games. I've never seen a player work harder on the court which to mean is indicative of how hard he will work to get better. I know the playoffs left a bad taste in many fans mouths but with his first full healthy off season at the age of 22 I expect him to take the leap next year.

5. Rondo and Bradley might look like a small 1-2 combination on paper but with the way they play defense and how the league is shifting to a smaller uptempo style I don't think it will be as much of a problem as people would believe. When both were healthy Bradley often hounded the point guard bringing the  ball up, while Rondo denied the 2/played the passing lane. If the point guard is able to get it to the two guard who will have a size mistmatch, said two probably has under 10 seconds left on the shot clock to make a move. So really the size mismatch is mitigated by forcing teams to take shots late in the shot clock. Also despite Rondo only being 6'1 he has a 6'7 wingspan, which will allows him to challenge the shots of bigger players.

6. Bradley is not a creator at this point and time. Currently he is a one or two dribble then pull up or attack the basket kind of guy. I'm not saying this won't change, but a player like that is severly hampered when he isn't working off someone elses penetrating. Bradley will have the benefit of Rondo's attacking this year resulting in more baskets on back door cuts and at the very least Bradley getting a step on his defender due to the rotation. His scoring will pick up this year.

This might look foolish in the future, but I believe he will put up close to 15 ppg next year and play even better defense. If this happens I will be sure to refer people to this post.