The Celtics Will Miss Avery Bradley
The Boston Celtics lost a great shooting guard in Avery Bradley, as he was traded to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for forward Marcus Morris.
The deal may have been worth it for Boston in order to clear up cap space to sign Gordon Hayward, but how much are the Celtics really going to miss Bradley?
What we have to remember about Bradley is that he was known to be a lock-down defender. In today’s NBA, teams revolve more around offensive efficiency due to the revolution that the Golden State Warriors created back in 2015.
With more and more teams focusing their attentions on players who can score the ball rather than defend it, players like Bradley become rarer as the days roll by.
Defense in today’s NBA is a lot softer than what it was back in the 90’s and even earlier in the 2000’s, so players like Bradley become more valuable on the court than people seem to value them on paper. All in all, Bradley is one of the last of his kind in the new age of the NBA.
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All of that being said however, all players in the league can play defense. The difference between the average defender and someone like Bradley however is that Bradley is known for his defensive efficiency and is very reliable when it comes to clutch situations at the end of a game.
With his absence on the Celtics’ roster, the team loses their most reliable defender and has created a huge weakness for teams to exploit come next season. Morris and Hayward may be key additions for a deeper playoff push, but Bradley’s departure definitely leaves a hole in the heart of Boston.
I haven’t even mentioned the stats that Boston will be missing next season. Bradley had his best statistical year in 2017, averaging 16.3 ppg along with 6.1 rpg and 2.2 apg. Judging from these impressive stats, I think it’s fair to say that Bradley was a very important member of the Celtics over the past seven years.
Regardless, Boston has definitely made some upgrades to their roster thus far in the offseason and their improvements on paper should be exemplified come next October. But with these improvements comes drawbacks, and I’d say the biggest drawback of them all is the disappearance of Bradley.
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Boston will never forget the last seven years with Bradley bleeding green and white, and the Celtics will not only miss him on the court, but off of it as well.