Avery Bradley has been terrible at defense lately (Mudiay 24pts as evidence)

[KingofDaPlayazBall]

Im so tired of people giving Bradley a pass on defense based on what he has done on past seasons.  As someone who loves watching good defense I tend to pay attention to each players individual defensive performances during games.  In my opinion avery bradley's defense has been unimpressive and even below average at a lot of times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh9dQwyu1ko
Mudiay dropping 24 in the first quarter on us is evidence of Bradley poor defense.
Notice how lackadaisical Bradley is on Mudiay's first 3 buckets, Bradley literally made 0 physical contact with Mudiay on all three buckets.  Talk about not setting the tone early, Bradley is responsible for letting Mudiay loose to the point where he knocked down three 3s in a row.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFID-m_lL7E
Dwayne Wade 22pts is another example, just giving him so much space and completely lacking in urgency the way he defended.

Is this a lock-down defender we are talking about here?  I know Bradley has the ability to play lockdown defense when he is locked in and giving maximum effort, the skill and tools are there,  but in recent years we rarely see this Bradley.  When he is not giving his 100 percent he is a very mediocre defender, he is undersized and doesn't make a lot of plays on the ball.  I remember some advanced stats that showed Bradley actually had an overall negative impact on team defense last year.  This year Bradley seems even worse, maybe Bradley is too focused on his offense since this is his contract year.

[TA9]

Defense isn't about making physical contact. It's more of a tactical game.

Mudiay is known for being a bad shooter, hence you just give him the space at the 3 point line instead of pressing him. If you press a bad shooter, he will have the opportunity to drive past you or maybe draw a foul.

Likewise, Dwyane was never known for being a good 3 point shooter. He was horrible last year. Knowing that; would you rather press him at the three point line (knowing that he has a deadly first step) or give him the space at the three point line?

Avery took a chance and he got burnt. Hopefully, he will learn from the mistakes he committed and make sure he doesn't commit them again.

[KingofDaPlayazBall]

Defense isn't about making physical contact. It's more of a tactical game.

Mudiay is known for being a bad shooter, hence you just give him the space at the 3 point line instead of pressing him. If you press a bad shooter, he will have the opportunity to drive past you or maybe draw a foul.

Likewise, Dwyane was never known for being a good 3 point shooter. He was horrible last year. Knowing that; would you rather press him at the three point line (knowing that he has a deadly first step) or give him the space at the three point line?

Avery took a chance and he got burnt. Hopefully, he will learn from the mistakes he committed and make sure he doesn't commit them again.

Please Watch the Mudiay tape again, Bradley doesn't defend either.  Mudiay went to the rim for his first three buckets Bradley is like a ghost.

Even poor shooters you still need to get closer then Bradley has, even poor shooter will hit wide open shots in the nba.

And your statement that defense isnt about physical contact is complete bull****, all the best defenders in the nba are good because they know how to be physical without fouling.(marcus smart, jae crowder, draymond green, ron artest, tony allen, are all good defenders because they are physical).  Even Brad Stevens pointed out the recent team struggles on defense is due to the lack of physicality

[Celtics4ever]

AB was not the only guy on him, IT was on him, and a few other guys.

[mr. dee]

IT and Rozier were the ones guarding Mudiay most of the time.

[rollie mass]

what happened in next 3 quarters 6 pts-----the guy got hot after being neglected because he is a poor shooter and interior defense was needed
with crowder and horford out i think avery's focus has been on rebounding and getting to hoop-scoring points-losing crowder kills team perimeter defence

was watching some tapes of marcus pre season his lift seemed good
is his recent ankle sprain still bothering him,his lift doesn't seem to be there-

[KingofDaPlayazBall]

AB was not the only guy on him, IT was on him, and a few other guys.

IT and Rozier were the ones guarding Mudiay most of the time.

I have the link of the tape in my post folks, Bradley was the first defender on him and gave him three easy buckets to start off.  Mudiay was coming off of a 0-7 game in Detroit and Bradley give him back all the confidence the rhythm by making it so easy for him on defense.  By the time Rozier got on Mudiay he was already feeling good.  Bradley supposed to be a shutdown defender and he talked about competing for the Defensive player of the year.  He did the worst out of all the defenders that were on Mudiay, the buckets Bradley had given him were the easiest.  I guess that talk was just campaigning for his next contract.

[KingofDaPlayazBall]

what happened in next 3 quarters 6 pts-----the guy got hot after being neglected because he is a poor shooter and interior defense was needed
with crowder and horford out i think avery's focus has been on rebounding and getting to hoop-scoring points-losing crowder kills team perimeter defence

was watching some tapes of marcus pre season his lift seemed good
is his recent ankle sprain still bothering him,his lift doesn't seem to be there-

Rollie, Mudiay was Bradley's assignment at the start of the game. How does Bradley neglect his own assignment is beyond me.  Bradley this season is carrying more weight on offense then he has ever had and he has improved on that side of the ball.  But the poor effort and focus on defense is undeniable.

[rollie mass]

again-how many points did he score in next 3 quarters 2 baskets and a couple foul shots-now thats shutting somebody down
how many rebounds has avery got in last few games
have to agree mudiay snuck up on him,
missing crowder,missing horford and as you say bradley not focused on defense of a poor shooter

[rollie mass]

mudiays first basket  off a rebound from back rimmed shot that caromed well past foul line with avery going in to rebound,mudiays next was a offensive rebound put back of a ball that rolled off rim bradly positioned on opposite side,the next beat bradley baseline that zeller didn't wall off-rozier got killed by mudiay,scored off smart and isaiah and bradley on a turnaround fade away that was unstoppable 
then he gets 2 baskets and two foul shots the rest of game-

[ThaPreacher]

I think that there are some credible points made here. The  Celtics level of intensity on defense is not where it needs to be. Why defend players who are not defending? I don't think its fair to put it all on Bradley. However, you make  some good points. I thought the same thing in both Chicago games.
Wade particularly was given way too much space.  Sadly,  all that coming to my mind was "Hand  down, Man down"-ah Mark Jackson please be silenced.

Bradley clearly is attempting to be force at both ends of the court. Maybe he needs time to find balance.  Ainge has known for a while that playing two undersized guards at the same time-Bradley and IT poses challenges.  Without a legit interior presence-shotblocker-rebounder, it puts alot more pressure on the team defense, which has been subpar. 

[chiken Green]

Guess no one remembers Bradley picking up with 2  Quick Fouls in the 1st.

[Alleyoopster]

I was pretty much a scrub on my college team, but was a pretty good defender. For close to one quarter I was giving a star scorer fits. (He was pretty p......)He couldn't hit anything. Then, he hit his first jumper. After that he couldn't miss no matter how closely I guarded him. It was like he was all alone practicing jump shots.

Believe me, if someone is hot from outside you're not going to stop him no matter how closely you guard him. If you stay too close, then he simply drives right past you. Stopping a hot shooter is a lot more difficult that you can imagine.

[Dennis_D]

mudiays first basket  off a rebound from back rimmed shot that caromed well past foul line with avery going in to rebound,

A in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time basket

mudiays next was a offensive rebound put back of a ball that rolled off rim bradly positioned on opposite side,

No excuse for Bradley not boxing out. The four closest players to the basket were Celtics. Rather than box out Mudiay, Bradley stands almost directly under the basket on the other side from Mudiay where he can only rebound the ball if it falls off the rim. If he had boxed out Mudiay, the Celtics easily get the rebound.

the next beat bradley baseline that zeller didn't wall off

Mudiay changes direction while dribbling the ball and completely loses Bradley, forcing Zeller to pick up Mudiay too far from the basket. Mudiay blows by him for the easy reverse. Once he was beaten, Bradly did nothing. Zeller's man was wide up for a dunk if Mudiay had passed it.

The rest of the plays didn't involve Bradley.

[Denis998]

Talk about basing this argument off of 3 plays, two plays of which aren't Bradley's fault. And no mention how Mudiay was limited to like 6 points for the rest of the game. He is 1st team all defense for a reason after all, and no need to discount him all for one play. I bet his DRPM numbers are off the charts (with Horford playing) with his new found rebounding ability.