I like posting on Rollie's threads because he seems to actually discuss the team rather than hypothetical trades or draft selections.Those other things are fine, but how many more posts can be generated that will mostly end up classified later as waste of time comments? Look at all that talk of Kevin Love a few years ago when it seemed he might play for us and not Cleveland. Was all that not a waste of time?
Bradley improved last year. Maybe it was not as noticeable as Crowder, but it happened.
1) He finished much better at the hoop
2) He was a more efficient shooter
3) He figured out how to dribble
He is an all-star on defense. His offense is solid. It's nice to have positions where we can check them off and say, "That's good. We can move on to improving the team at other positions."
There is one last flaw Avery has to figure out if he wants to be towards the top of any all-star list. There is simply too much competition to get awards like that. Was Nomar Garciaparra critiqued for not being A-Fraud or Jeter? No. Now maybe Bradley isn't the third best at his position as Nomar was, but he is certainly up there on the list.
I am looking at his stats. Last year Avery improved with steals, assists, and 2 pt. shot percentage. He shot threes at 36% and his free throws at 78%. For a great defender, he is very good on offense too. That seems to be what Rollie is saying. He's already proven on defense and gets it done on offense. I think a lot of people don't realize how good Avery is. And if he can knock it off with his lousy passes, something Tommy would point out, he is most definitely a starter on a championship team.
Avery also played almost every game the last two seasons, so he has even improved at staying healthy or whatever the word is for making it onto the court more. He now has more stamina. He is almost a finished product, so to speak, and still very young.
I think the poster Shaq Attack kept referring to Avery as mini-Kobe. Avery made some kind of leap last year. He went from being a chucker to more of an artist at scoring.