I don't know about this...
I want to lose Wallace as much as the next guy, but I'm not sure it's worth giving up Bradley as well.
As mentioned above, making this deal would free up enough space for us to use the trade exception and bring back a $10M contract. However we also lose our starting SG, which we would then have to replace.
OJ Mayo got about $10M last season. Eric Gordon got a max contract from the Hornets/Pelicans. Young, undersized, athletic combo guards are getting pretty big pay days in the NBA these days.
Bradley is averaging 16/5/2 on a per 36 minute basis while shooting pretty efficiently from the field and from three, and he's a former All-Defensive selection. He has a great attitude, a great worth ethic, excellent athleticism and is only 23 years old.
If you spend $8M in free agency, do you believe that you can bring in a combo guard who can give offer you more than what I have just listed above? I doubt it. For $10k maybe, but even that would be a stretch.
how about via a trade? Well, if there is a team out the who has a young SG who is as good as Bradley, why would they trade for Bradley AND take on Wallace's contract as well?
I don't know...it might seem like $8M or so a year is a steep price to pay for Bradley, but the Celtics might actually be better off paying him that then they would be with whatever potential repalcements are out there.
I wouldn't expect we could just sign Crawford as his repalcement either. The way he is playing he is likely to be offered at least a full Midlevel exception, and it's very possible that some time out there will offer him more than that.
No...I don't think trading Bradley is the right move. I think we are betting off trying to package Wallace with Crawford and a 1st Rounder and hope that some team will bite. 1st rounders have high value these days, and Crawford is both a young talent AND an expiring contract. That's a solid offer for a rebuilding team that has the cap space to absorb Wallace's contract and that could use a veteran presence in the locker room.
Do I think Bradley will ever become a superstar? No, but I do think he could become an O.J. Mayo / Tony Allen Hybrid - a guy who can be a 3rd scoring option and an elite defensvie stopper. A glue-guy who could one day be the difference between a first round exit and a championship contender. You saw the Celtics two seasons back. Every series was hard fought - it was the guys like Mikael Pietrus, Keeyon Dooling and Marquis Daniels who put us over the edge in those series, and those guys made the difference between us being a first round exit, and us making the ECF. They overachieved and they just played hard on every posession, came up with some massive defensive plays that turned the tide.
I think a guy like AB could single handedly have that type of an effect. He's a guy who plays with high energy and a high level of effort every single night, who never quits on a play. Those are the types of guys who make the types of plays that win playoff games. The James Posey types.
I say re-sign him, and I have a feeling that Danny is going to agree.
Topic: Idea: Bradley/Wallace for Bynum (Read 3385 times)