BOSTON – Very little time has passed since Avery Bradley’s buzzer-beating buzz kill of a shot (for Cavs fans anyway) that downed Cleveland 104-103 at the Quicken Loans Arena Friday night.
When you listen to players talk about it, it was clear that Bradley was not the team’s first or even second option on the play.
And yet when you look at his numbers analytically along with his past of hitting those kind of shots, it makes you wonder … why not?
He’s only 25 years old, but he is the most tenured Celtics player on the roster.
More than seniority, Bradley has arguably been Boston’s most consistent player in terms of guarding the opposing team’s best perimeter player every night while providing a steady offensive punch.
Following Friday’s win, Bradley now has the highest offensive rating (points scored per 100 possessions) on the team at 106.1.
But as we dig deeper into Bradley’s numbers this season, there are some very clear indicators as to why the 6-foot-2 guard is having such a solid season and why a case can be made that he should be looked upon more often as a go-to guy down the stretch in close games.
LESSONS LEARNED IN SUPREME CONFIDENCE
Bradley and Jared Sullinger are the only two holdovers from a time not that long ago when Boston was the envy of the league, bolstering a roster that included not one, not two, but three future Hall of Famers in Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.
It’s almost impossible to be around those guys and not develop a heightened level of swagger to your game, although most would agree Bradley’s confidence is on a more stealth level than his more boisterous ex-teammates.
Since their departures, Bradley has not hesitated to showcase his shooting skills. In fact, he is on track to rank among Boston’s top three in shots taken per game for the third straight season.
While it may come as a surprise to some, Bradley’s scoring prowess has been alive and well dating back to his high school days when he was the top-rated player in a class that included future NBA stars John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins as well as other NBA players such as Derrick Favors of Utah and John Henson of Milwaukee.
And while his defense has always been at an elite level, you have to get buckets if you’re going to get the top spot among prep ballers.
NO WASTED TIME
When Bradley shoots there’s very little wasted motion in his mechanics. The same holds true for the timing of his shots.
The Celtics love to swing the ball to create good ball movement and get the best shot possible, but often that shot comes early – really early – in the shot clock for Bradley.
With six seconds or less off the shot clock, Bradley’s effective Field Goal Percentage (eFG%) is .597.
And when Boston grabs an offensive rebound, Bradley is often the player who finds the ball in his hands quickly which speaks to some extent why his eFG% with 22-24 seconds on the shot clock is .528.
NO DRIBBLING REQUIRED
Bradley’s ball-handling has improved, but it’s nowhere close to being a strength of his game. There are few players who embody the catch-and-shoot doctrine more than Bradley.
More than half of his shots taken this season – 56.8 percent to be exact – have come about without a single dribble.
And when he shoots without dribbling, he has an eFG% of .547 which is impressive for a shooter who is undersized for the position he plays.
Bradley is at a height disadvantage most nights, but rarely does his shot get blocked.
UNDER PRESSURE PERFORMER
The shot he made to lift Boston past Cleveland on Friday night was about as pressure-packed a shot as one can take in terms of when he got the shot off and the fairly tight defense that the Cavs were playing at the time (although the Cavs could not have been happy with Iman Shumpert’s hands-down defense).
It was yet another opportunity for Bradley to drain a big jumper with a defender in his vicinity.
In fact, he’s shooting 46.8 percent from the field when a defender is within two feet of his shot attempt. And when he shoots after touching the ball for less than two seconds he has shot 44.1 percent from the field with an effective field goal percentage of .536.