Avery Bradley's Future With Celtics Up In The Air

http://bostonherald.com/sports/celtics_nba/boston_celtics/2014/05/avery_bradley_s_future_with_celtics_up_in_air



Avery Bradley’s future with Celtics up in air



Photo by: Matt Stone
BRADLEY: The unrestricted free agent guard could be moving on just as he is coming on.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
By:  Mark Murphy


Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge recently had good reason to claim that he doesn’t have a list of priorities heading into what will be one of his busiest offseasons in the last 10 years.

“Every player is priority,” Ainge said.

Consider, for example, that half of the 25-57 roster from this just-completed season could be gone by the time training camp opens in October for the 2014-15 campaign.

Consider that Avery Bradley — one of the C’s brightest hopes in the last four seasons — could easily join the departed.

In most years, unrestricted free agents are a good bet to return to the team that holds their matching rights. But when Bradley and his camp broke off extension talks with the Celtics over the winter despite the fact that the sides weren’t far apart, the guard may also have lost out on his best-case money scenario for next season.

Bradley’s ongoing brittleness considered, the C’s are unlikely to return to the four-year, $24 million extension that was previously offered. The injury issue may also limit what he finds on the market this summer.

Chronic ankle trouble limited Bradley to a 60-game season. He has never had a fully healthy NBA season, a circumstance that won’t give him much leverage. Bradley’s most durable regular season came in 2011-12, when he played in 64 games, and he excelled in 10 playoff games before chronic shoulder trouble forced him out.

On the other hand, Bradley clearly improved his lot as a shooting guard. He closed 2013-14 by averaging 22.4 points over his last five games. He shot 53 percent (18-for-34) from 3-point range over that stretch.

If Bradley is indeed coming into his own from downtown, then perhaps the guard will score his first big contract — maybe even one the Celtics find too rich to match.

“That’s something Danny (Ainge) and (coach) Brad (Stevens) have told me to work on,” Bradley said of increasing his range to become a consistent 3-point shooter. “Throughout the year I wasn’t confident shooting the 3-ball, but as the year went on I became more confident thanks to my teammates and putting in the work.”

That was certainly the final image Bradley left with Stevens, who subscribes to the analytics age theory that 3-pointers are the next best thing to layups.

“At the start of the season we saw a lot of those 20-foot long 2’s, and now they’re 3’s above the break,” Stevens said in the last week of the season. “It’s too bad he got hurt, and it’s too bad he missed (22) games. If he could have got this rhythm earlier, it would have been great for him and us.”

Instead, the Celtics will go into the summer wondering if Bradley can ever survive an entire season, or whether he’s destined for an injury-riddled career. That’s inevitable for some players who play as hard as he does.

“Avery had a good season,” Ainge said. “I’ve seen improvement in Avery this year, and the biggest issue with Avery has just been health. He plays hard and he’s had some injuries, but none of them are injuries that should prevent him from becoming a great player.”

The question is whether he gets to that point as a Celtic.



bob



.

Fortunately, the ultimate decision as to whether or not he will be a Celtic next season lies with the Celtics—not with Avery or any other team.

Sam

I'd venture to say the future of more than half the team is up in the air.

Rondo, Green, Bradley, Hump, Pressey, Bayless, and Bass all face the possibility of ending up with another team, be it next season or the season after.

As for Bradley, I'd like to see him retained. He's worked very hard on his game, I just hope that he can become less injury prone.


KJ