Avery Bradley’s Importance Highlighted by Defensive Honors

Avery Bradley’s importance goes beyond the stat sheet

It’s no secret in Boston that Avery Bradley is one of the best wing defenders in the NBA. Defense has always been his focus since he was drafted 19th overall in 2010 out of Texas. His offense has been shaky throughout his career, steadily improving, however, he could always be counted on as a defender.

Through his first five seasons, Bradley was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team once but has always been in the shadow of Rajon Rondo and now Isaiah Thomas. This year Bradley broke out of the shadow a little as he was easily voted to the NBA All-Defensive First Team.

He received the most points out of all the guards (149) – even more than Chris Paul (148) and Tony Allen (121). It’s extremely impressive for a player who usually isn’t talked about when discussing the strengths of the Boston Celtics.

You hear about Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Brad Stevens, Marcus Smart and even their abundance of assets, yet you rarely hear about Avery Bradley. The most talk that Bradley usually gets is when he’s involved in nearly every trade rumor that involves the third pick in the draft and the Celtics trying to land an established veteran.

Everyone in Boston may know about his impact on the court for the Celtics, however, it still feels like he’s under-appreciated.

By looking at the stats, Bradley probably isn’t deserving of being on the First or Second Team. He averaged 1.5 steals per game – tied for second on the team. Jae Crowder and Marcus Smart both average more steals per 36 minutes than Bradley and have a higher steal percentage, according to Basketball Reference.

Avery Bradley’s impact on the team goes beyond the stat sheet and it was shown during the Celtics’ playoff series loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

Bradley always has the job of guarding the opposing team’s best guard. For as good of a player as Isaiah Thomas is, his height is a big disadvantage on that side of the ball. He can’t always be a nuisance when a player is going up for a shot and they end up getting a clean look at the basket. That leaves it up to Bradley to stick on them all game.

Bradley did this for 76 games this past season and 33.4 minutes per game – led the team. He was the guy who had to guard Jeff Teague in Game 1, and stopped him until he left the game with an injury.

Teague finished Game 1 with 23 points and 12 assists on 7-of-15 shooting from the field and 9-of-11 shooting from the free-throw line. However, before Bradley left the game, with 6:41 left in the fourth quarter, Teague only had 14 points and 10 assists. He was still passing the ball efficiently but wasn’t scoring as effectively as the Hawks are used to.

In the last 6:41 of Game 1, Teague recorded nine points and two assists and went 2-of-2 from the field and 5-of-6 from the line. He was able to get open and drive to the basket more during the final half of the fourth quarter than the first 42 minutes when Bradley was in.

Isaiah Thomas wasn’t able to pressure him as much as Bradley did and Teague was able to draw more fouls once he got by him. Teague ended up taking over the game for Atlanta and was a big reason they escaped Game 1 with a 102-101 victory.

Before Bradley’s injury, everyone was talking about his poor shooting night (1-of-7 from three). He wasn’t lighting it up from downtown and he only recorded one steal at that point, however, the ball pressure that forced Teague to pass and his lateral quickness to stop Teague from driving to the basket was why he was able to contain him.

It’s not something seen on the stat sheet but it was one of the biggest reasons why Boston was still in the game when the fourth quarter started.

Bradley had many games like that all season that went unnoticed. His impact on the game isn’t his ability to create turnovers or score points. It’s his ball pressure, lateral quickness and ability to space the floor.

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Bradley only shot 36.1 percent from behind the arc last season and was a streaky shooter, to say the least. He’s not the three-point specialist that Boston is looking for this off-season but his ability to play off-the-ball and space the floor is something no one else on the Celtics was able to do. Bradley doesn’t need the ball in his hands to be effective.

Although, he can create shots for himself when he’s not running off a screen for one of his famous 15-feet jump shots. He is in constant movement on offense and a big reason why the Celtics offense went stagnant so often during the playoffs.

It’s weird to think that Bradley could be on the move this summer because of everything he does for the Celtics and how he continues to improve every season. He is always becoming a better scorer, defender, rebounder, passer – you name it.

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He doesn’t hit the crazy shots that Isaiah Thomas does when he gets into the lane but Bradley is still a very important piece to the Celtics – if that wasn’t shown during the playoffs. It’s easy to sleep on the young guard but the NBA didn’t this season and he’s starting to become known as one of the best defenders in the league.