Brad Stevens on Avery Bradley: 'He's a big part of what we're doing'

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4723076/brad-stevens-on-avery-bradley-hes-a-big-part-of-what-were-doing



Brad Stevens on Avery Bradley: 'He's a big part of what we're doing'


11:57 PM ET



Chris Forsberg
ESPN Staff Writer



Add Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens to the #FirstTeamAllDefense campaign for guard Avery Bradley.

The NBA's All-Defense teams will be announced later this month, and Bradley had been previously showered with praise by his peers. During an appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio on Friday, Stevens joined the chorus while detailing the impact of losing Bradley to a hamstring injury during Game 1 of a first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks.



"He's so good at putting pressure on the basketball," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said of Avery Bradley. Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images


"In my eyes, the entire time I’ve been here, but really this year, [Bradley] stood out to me as first team all-defensive guy," Stevens told the "Off the Dribble" program. "He's so good at putting pressure on the basketball. And he's gotten really good at defending both on the ball, which he’s always been great at, but then off the ball, navigating screens and making it difficult for guys to get the position they want. He had multiple games where we switched him onto big 3s, who tried to post him at the end of games, and he kept them from getting what they wanted. He’s really a good defender."

Stevens was referencing instances like a late-February visit from the Utah Jazz in which Bradley defended Stevens' old Butler pupil Gordon Hayward on the game's final possession and produced a game-saving block.

Bradley made the NBA's All-Defense second team in 2013, but his efforts may have been overshadowed a bit while the Celtics rebuilt on the fly under Stevens. The Celtics tied for the fourth-best defensive rating in the league this season (100.9 points per 100 possessions), and opposing coaches often raved about the team's tenacious perimeter defense, led by Bradley, Jae Crowder and Marcus Smart.

Bradley actually owned the worst defensive rating on the Celtics among regulars (102.9), but it was balanced by the fact that Boston's offense owned a rating of 107 while he was on the court. Individually, the league's player-tracking data showed that Bradley held opponents to 41.6 percent shooting overall, or 2.4 percent below their season averages. Consider, too, that Bradley was often tasked with guarding the opponent's top scoring guard. It left players like Damian Lillard suggesting that Bradley is the best perimeter defender in the league.

Bradley finished sixth in voting for the league's defensive player of the year, but was the top vote-getter among guards (and Tony Allen was the only other backcourt player in the top 10). Given that the same group of sportswriters and broadcasters vote for All-Defense, it would seem a good chance that Bradley might land on the All-Defense first team (the only question being if someone like Chris Paul might sneak ahead of him when voters picked the team by positions).

Despite being the longest-tenured member of the Celtics, having been drafted 19th overall in 2010, Bradley is just 25 years old. He signed a four-year, $32 million extension with the Celtics in the summer of 2014, and he'll be a bargain for his role and production while earning $8.3 million next season.

Stevens suggested that Bradley is a core piece of the team's foundation moving forward, noting how the team missed his offense just as much as his defense after he strained his hamstring in Game 1 against the Hawks last month.

"Maybe as much as [Bradley's defense], was the fact that he’s one of our leading 3-point shooters at 36 percent and he’s one of our leading scorers at 15 points per game," Stevens said. "He had a great year. And just continues to improve and get better. It was unfortunate that he got hurt. I felt bad for him because he was hurting watching the games. You could tell, it was eating at him to watch the games. Because he wanted to be out there. Hopefully he gets back healthy and ready to roll soon and has another great summer because he’s a big part of what we’re doing."



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