I'm a bit surprised this at myself but the numbers I just looked at in the link I published above, say Bradley is possibly the WORST choice on this team to fill in at PG.
There a few caveats because of Bradley's injury, inexperience etc, but his performance has been his performance and his game (statistically) just doesn't lend to him playing the position.
His assists/TO % are abysmal, he can't hasn't shown an ability to create shots for himself or others.
Don't get me wrong, I like they guy, but not as a PG from what I'm seeing.
LOL - here I am - a tried and convicted, 'stats guy' - to say: "Stats don't mean xxxxx!" and "Try watching the games with your eyes!!!"
More specifically, that article is, imho, once again simply a very poor usage of statistics.
I'm not saying that Bradley might not be 'the worst' choice to fill in at PG. But that analysis in that article is pretty much useless to me if I want to ask that question.
Measurement without a normalized context is not very useful. None of the numbers used in that 'analysis' have a normalized context and they are from very small samples. Remarking that Bradley falls far from the prototypical PG in Adrien's 'cluster' analysis is silly. Bradley last year was only playing 'PG' in that he was bringing the ball up. He was almost never initiating the offense and not in a role to generate assists. Heck, even in his SG role, his expectations have been quite different from what is expected of other SGs. Last year overall was just a bizarre, twisted tale of make-shift, changing lineups with lots of our players being asked to do things they weren't expected to do.
The are just a ton of extraneous factors that make that sort of linear comparison silly. Aside from the injuries and lack of training camp and 'inserted into a new role' issues, there are larger issues of what the team is trying to do in development of each of these players and where each player is in his development.
Folks have a tendency to forget that Bradley is still only 22 years old, with only portions of his three seasons under his belt. He's too young and too untried to really say whether he can or can't do certain things. To Ainge and Stevens, he represents a lot of raw athletic potential that they want to mold. They are going to push him through their process and see if he can be shaped to become what they want. They aren't going to NOT do that just because, at the moment, a player like Jordan Crawford might look like he has better PG skills-related stats. Jordan Crawford is two years older and they know who he is.
When Bradley was in H.S., he was often the primary initiator of his team's offense. He was good at that. Rated neck & neck with John Wall as the top 2 players in the nation.
Here are a couple of scouting comments from his performance at the National Prep Showcase (absolute top H.S players in the nation) in the fall of his senior year:
Avery Bradley (#10 Scout, #8 Rivals, #15 ESPN) was hands down the top performer here at the National Prep Showcase, willing his team to a 2-0 record while putting up gaudy numbers in the meantime.
and:
The Washington native is an absolute nightmare to guard offensively. The bread and butter of his game centers around his pull-up mid-range jumper, which he can create and get off at will. Capable of stopping on the drop of a dime, he gets outstanding elevation with a high release point on his pull-up. When combined with his great first step, he is able to get defenders back on their feet with his strong initial drive, and then rise up before they are able to even contest his jumper.
From DraftExpress.com http://www.draftexpress.com#ixzz2fwlzCONN
http://www.draftexpress.com
And then, at the end of his senior year, he was still getting similar accolades. This one is from the ESPN RISE National High School Invitational:
After a weekend in which he dominated some of the top teams in the country, Avery Bradley (#10 Scout, #8 Rivals, #1 ESPN) has recently risen to the number one spot on ESPN's rankings of the class of 2009. Having already been scouted extensively by DraftExpress at several other events this year, this write up will be short.
The future Texas Longhorn had all of his weapons on display this past weekend in Maryland. He scored a tournament high 27 points in his second game of the tournament, doing the bulk of his damage with his stellar mid-range game. Bradley is extremely difficult to cover due to his excellent quickness, but also because of his ability to stop on a dime and elevate with a smooth shooting stroke. The McDonald's All-American dunk champion was able to get out in transition and wow the crowd a couple of times during the course of his three games with several impressive throw-downs.
From DraftExpress.com http://www.draftexpress.com#ixzz2fwmvUBTH
http://www.draftexpress.com
So Bradley clearly showed potential to be a 'play creator' and offensive go-to guy back then. He wasn't being scouted as just a pure defensive player.
However, when he was at Texas, he was basically told to stay outside and shoot from the perimeter and play D. He was mediocre at the former, but terrific at the latter. His offensive numbers were kinda lame. He declared for the draft anyway and so he fell all the way to #19 where we got him. He also injured his ankle in a pre-draft workout and so ended up missing training camp and sitting on the bench for much of his rookie year.
During that year, though, he did go spend 9 games with the Red Claws in Maine. During that stretch, when he got a solid 32+ mpg, he was once again used more like he was in High School: as a primary offensive weapon, including play initiator. His pace-adjusted points and assist numbers during that stretch were almost twice anything he posted at Texas or with the Celics (yes, even better than Bradley was in 2011-12).
So, there have been some small stretches (H.S., D-League) where Bradley was asked to play a more commanding role on offense and he has shown flashes of brilliance. Those have been, of course, at lower competitive levels (though against a lot of guys who are now in the Association). He has not been asked yet to really do that at the NBA level. We don't really know if he can do it at this level yet.
Hopefully, he can stay healthy this year and we will find out. He may fail. But the Celtics need to find out before they decide how much to pay him.
And yeah, I know, some very vocal fans on this blog like to insist that they can already 'see it' that he can't and never will and assert so loudly and often. But Danny & Co probably have seen a bit more of Bradley than we have and they will be the final judges.
Topic: Starting Point Guard thru December? (Read 26496 times)