Avery Bradley's priority is to become NBA 1st Team All-Defense

Avery Bradley had his best offensive season of his young NBA career last season. Most importantly he established himself as a viable three point shooter from beyond just the corners.

Having said that, I sometimes got the feeling because he was in a contract year and the Celtics were nowhere near a playoff team he was more going after his offensive numbers than focusing on his mainstay, defense.

After all, defensive intensity and being a defensive leader do not show up in the box score.

Now that the contract he wanted is locked up Bradley is free to get back to his specialty and take up where Kevin Garnett left off when he went to the Nets.

This from Jay King at masslive.com:

“That’s my main goal: I want to be on the (All-Defensive) first team,” he said. “I made the second team two years ago. That’s my No. 1 goal this year. But obviously I want to improve in every part of my game.”

Brad Stevens had a long talk with the guard prior to yesterday's practice and elaborated on this point:

“A lot of people can score. A lot of people can handle it. A lot of people can make plays with the ball,” Stevens said. “Very few people can do those things and change the energy of a game with their intensity level. That’s a hard thing to do day-to-day, practice to practice. You need (Bradley) to do it 82 times. But at the end of the day, I think he’s different because of that.”

Watching Avery lock down opposing guards will be something all Celtic fans can look forward to this season.

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