Thoughts About Avery Bradley

Once he missed summer league, training camp, and the first month of the season, he became a project for 2011-12. At that point a major issue was not crushing his spirit by throwing him in over his head. If there hadn’t been a constant stream of injuries (Delonte’s suspension, broken wrist, and ankle sprains; Rondo’s planar fasciitis, hamstring, ankle, and finger) then Avery might have spent the entire D-League season in Maine.

He will likely suffer the most from the CBA lockout since he will lose another off-season (and training camp?), a particularly heavy blow since he came out after his freshman year where he gained little from Rick Barnes’ tutelage at Texas.

Progress by Avery (and the retention of West) would make Von Wafer superfluous.

His becoming a contributor allows the kind of defensive improvement the Celtics need in order to cope with the increasingly dominant perimeter threats—Rose in Chicago, Wade in Miami, Paul in New Orleans, Deron Williams in New Jersey, Ellis, Westbrook, Jennings, Gordon, Roy, Evans, Mayo, to name a few.

His emergence could lighten the workload on Rondo and Allen whose seasons were marked by too many minutes, too much wear and tear, and increasing inconsistency as the season wound down.

I would expect to see him playing alongside Rondo or West in the upcoming season.  Perhaps more at PG in the following one.

I view Avery as the first solid step toward the post-PGA Celtics.