There's no way this bradley signing isn't for something bigger. The guy can't hold up for a full season and ainge is giving him 8 million a year? No way! It's part of smt bigger which could even be trading rondo and letting smart and bradley man the back court. Who knows what ainge has up his sleeve. He doesn't seem to be the gm who over pays a injury prone sg who's best skill is defense and open corner 3s
There is a way that's happening... It just did. Get used to it!
It's say there is about 3x higher probability of Rondo being traded than Bradley. Rondo reportedly wants $100m while isn't likely happening. He's nearly 30 on a rebuilding team that's otherwise filled with <25 year old guys. On a team clearly in need of scoring, he's clearly the last capable scorer in the starting lineup. He's just come off an ACL, high risk. If a trade for a star can't be done, he'll probably walk next year. His defense has, for a few years now, but highly suspect. He's also reported to be somewhat...difficult to get along with.
On the other hand Bradley is young, he's a modest kid, super hard working, always about the team first. Top shelf defender, recently emerged as a quite capable scorer.
Take a look at the past few draft picks Ainge has gone for. Jared Sullinger. Kelly olynyk. Marcus Smart. Danny almost always goes for a high character guy with any draft pick worth anything. He goes for guys who are good leaders, or especially tough, or super hard working - ultimately guys who will put the team first and who are highly coachable. Bradley fits all of those criteria, and he's quite a player too.
I'm surprised how much people disregard the value of attitude for a player. A bad attitude is enough to turn a highly valuable young big man into a veteran min deal (see: Andray Blatche). Its enough to get an otherwise talented player forced out of the league (see: Delonte West).
So if BAD attitude can have such an impact on the desirability of a player, what makes you think that an overwhelmingly good attitude can't add significant value too? If Bradley was the same player he is, but only had average work ethic and was largely concerned with his individual stats, then im sure his deal would have been closer to the 5-6 million people here were expecting. But he's not. AB is one of the toughest, most unselfish, hardest working guys I've seen on this team. He's probably the only guy who could share the court with kg, and still leave you wondering which of them was putting up more impressive effort. Bradley may have good and bad games, but I don't think anybody could ever argue than when he's on the court, he's giving you anything less than 110% effort.
That's a very big factor I think in him getting such a big contact.
You need to consider this. Bradley has only played 4 seasons in the NBA. His second season he played so well he replaced a living legend, Ray Allen, in the starting lineup and earned a selection to the All-Defensive second team. His third season in the NBA he earned a selection to the All-Defensive second team again, and was instrumental to the Celtics unexpectedly deep playoffs run. His fourth season in the NBA he made impressive strides offensively, finishing as the team's second leading scorer and arguably is best three point shooter, almost doubling his scoring average of the previous season.
This kid has some all of this, and he's only 23. He's still got borderline elite athleticism and great length for his position -even if height is leaking). He's a hard worker, he's a great teammate, he's a guy who leads by example. Guys like that don't come along often, when they do, you try not to let them walk.
Topic: An interesting analysis of the Celtics offseason (Read 7006 times)