Boston Celtics' Avery Bradley hopes to put himself in discussion for Most Improved Player

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Boston Celtics' Avery Bradley hopes to put himself in discussion for Most Improved Player

Avery Bradley Showing Helpful Adjustments



NEW YORK -- Avery Bradley would like to make one of the All-Defensive teams this season, and has now altered his sights to consider a new honor: the Most Improved Player award.

"For sure making the All-Defensive team," he told MassLive.com Wednesday in New York. "I would even love to get Most Improved if I continue to work and keep getting better, and prove what I can do on the offensive end. I think a lot of people kind of push that to the side, but I feel like the last few years – obviously I could have been better – but I feel like I've had a pretty consistent couple of years. If I can keep it going and even take it to another level, I feel like I can be in the talk for that as well."

Bradley's desire to make the All-Defensive team is nothing new. He takes great pride in his work on that end of the court and considers himself one of the world's best stoppers. The shooting guard also believes he's ready to showcase a more diverse offensive repertoire.

"Just by slowing down," he said. "Just making the game a lot easier on myself. I feel like that's the most important thing: not speeding up and just making the easy plays, the right, easy play. And that's what I've been trying to pride myself on because I want to be a great teammate and make shots for my team. That's all I care about. I want to be able to make more plays for my teammates because I know I can. Especially the way I can score the ball, I can make it easier for my teammates too. And I have to look to do that."

It would take a major leap to earn Most Improved. The last three winners -- Paul George, Goran Dragic and Jimmy Butler -- all turned themselves into stars. Bradley can still remember when opposing teams wanted him with the ball. Recalling how defenses used to play him, the guard laughed, bent into a defensive stance and backed up several feet.

"Everyone was like, 'Let him shoot!'" he said.

But that changed as Bradley turned himself into a capable shooter both inside the arc and beyond. The next obvious step is to continue transforming his shot selection. Over two preseason games so far, Bradley has gone 7 for 8 from downtown with all the tries coming from the corners. He still has the green light to shoot open jumpers from anywhere, but clearly wants to move more of his attempts behind the line. If he can do that, he should boost his efficiency even if he fails to change his shooting percentages.

"I thought offensively his shot selection (in those games) was really good," said head coach Brad Stevens. "We want him to be aggressive, we want him to shoot, we want him to be thinking about putting the ball in the basket. We also want him to make the right basketball play. And I just thought he made a lot of decisions. I thought from an offensive standpoint it was as good of a two games as he's played as far as early in the season goes. Obviously he's had moments where he's gone nuts. And he will. That's what he can do. He can get it going in a hurry."

Against Real Madrid, Bradley threw a slight shoulder fake in the corner to lift his defender of his feet. Bradley then took one dribble to the left, calmly set himself and swished a corner three. The move was new for him, but he said he hasn't practiced it much.

"It was all instincts," he said. "It was just me playing the game and knowing what I wanted to get. And that's a wide open three. I feel like it's better than a two. I mean, you can argue because if I have a straight line to the basket for a layup obviously I'm going to take the layup. But I feel like a three's better than a long two."

With that in mind, Bradley said he aims to stop "letting people run me off the three."

"I was making it harder on myself last year," he said. "Even drawing fouls at the 3-point line, or me driving and kicking the ball. There's lots of things that I can do that I'm going to try to put in my game this year because it gets everyone's energy going and not just thinking every time I get the ball, you know, I'm gonna shoot.

"I feel like I was letting people contest all my threes (last season) instead of pump-faking and doing the side-dribble, or pump-faking, driving and dishing it, or being able to make a play. Or even drawing fouls at the 3-point line because no one was letting me shoot threes last year. And I feel like that's something that I'm going to get better at this year.

"I learned a lot last year from people running at me. Now I can draw contact by pump fakes or make those step-to-the-side threes. I feel like there's definitely going to be more of that this year."


bob
MY NOTE: One thing you gotta give Bradley, his attitude is exceptional.


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