Former Boston Celtics All-Defensive Team guard suggested as Knicks free agent target
In an opinion piece for FanNation, Ben Stinar suggested the New York Knicks target former Boston Celtics NBA All-Defensive First Team (2016) and All-Defensive Second Team (2013) guard Avery Bradley in free agency.
Bradley received a championship ring with the Los Angeles Lakers during the COVID-19 pandemic-stricken 2019-20 season though he didn’t attend the NBA’s bubble playoffs in Walt Disney World’s Wide World of Sports complex.
When he did return for the 2020-21 season, he was traded mid-season from the defending east champion Miami Heat to the rebuilding Houston Rockets, who were not long removed from tearing down their roster following the (first) James Harden-Brooklyn Nets blockbuster.
Bradley returned to the Lakers last season and started 45 games for a team that ultimately went nowhere, finishing 11th place in the Western Conference. He, like many veterans, has been held up by the Kevin Durant trade saga–and was among the many players Patrick Beverley defended in a tweet calling out KD–but could soon find a home as training camps begin across the NBA in late-September.
The Boston Celtics should also consider Avery Bradley
Avery Bradley has experience playing with Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart, playing for the Boston Celtics up until the summer of 2017 when the team traded him to the Detroit Pistons for Marcus Morris Sr. He just missed the boat playing with Jayson Tatum, but something tells the Houdini that he’d fit right along with the current roster given his masterful back-door cuts and 39% conversion rate from beyond the arc last season.
With three roster spots left, the Cs can afford to sign two more players to get to the training camp maximum of 20. Bradley would be a good target for the Knicks, particularly if the team lands Donovan Mitchell and sends far more players out than they’re bringing in. A Mitchell trade did just get more complicated with R.J. Barrett signing a $120 million extension, but it’s still possible a deal gets done.
Michael Kaskey-Blomain of CBS Sports called Bradley a potentially valuable contributor to a contender, so the Cs fit the bill even more so than the Knicks. While Boston’s backcourt is loaded, Bradley could shift to the wing as an undersized wing that more than makes up for it with active on-ball hawking and above-average athleticism even being on the wrong side of 30.