At the moment I think Courtney Lee is better than Bradley. I hope I'm wrong, but I see Lee is a vastly superior scorer and probably on the same level defensively.
While I agree that folks should tone down the hype on Bradley and wait to see how good of a player he is coming back from his surgery, I'm struggling to see from where you are drawing the conclusion that Lee "is a vastly superior scorer".
Bradley played 1368 minutes last year and averaged 12.7 points per 36 minutes. Yes, he averaged 16.5 per 36 in April (almost 14per for Mar/April combined), but let's include the whole season. His shooting percentages were 49.8%/40.7%/79.5%. He averaged 10.6 FGAs and 2.1 FTAs per 36 minutes.
Lee played 1757 minutes last year and averaged 13.5 points per 36 minutes. His shooting percentages were 43.3%/40.1%/82.6%. He averaged 11.9 FGA and 1.8 FTA per 36 minutes.
Lee's numbers last year were similar to his career numbers, which have been pretty rock steady.
I'm not going to argue that Bradley is or isn't a better scorer than Lee. But I see absolutely NO evidence that Lee is a "vastly superior scorer" than Bradley.
Agreed. LarBrd33 is downplaying Bradley's abilities far more than reasonable caution about small sample size would justify.
He had a month of ridiculous shooting in April (52% FG, 55% from three and 78% from the line)... his percentages in High school (38% from three), College (43% FG, 37% 3P, 54% FT), his rookie season (34% FG, 0% 3P, 50% FT) and the playoffs (37% FG, 23% 3P, 67% FT) aren't very impressive. I say there's more evidence to suggest he's a bad shooter than a good one.
I don't think there's any doubt that Lee is a more polished offensive player and a better shooter. On defense, Lee is already making me a fan.
Oh come on - the 'rookie season' sample size is 162 minutes scattered across 31 games. He only got more than 10 minutes playing time in TWO of those games! And the playoff sample is just 240 minutes - while playing with two bad shoulders!
Your paragraph implicitly gives those two samples equal weight with a whole 1368 minute season! That's blatant mis-use of statistics. That's barely 400 minutes of play (scattered in large part across many small snippets of lay) compared to
over two thousand minutes that suggest he is a anything BUT a 'bad shooter'.
Bradley logged:
1003 minutes in college and shot 37.5% from 3PT range.
290 minutes in the D league and shot 37% from 3PT range.
1368 minutes in his first real NBA season and shot 40.7%.
I don't have his H.S. minutes handy (I could look them up) but they are probably several hundred more that support this. He shot 38% from 3PT range in H.S.
In the situations where Bradley has gotten extended run (i.e. multiple games with extended minutes per game) i.e., High School, College, D-League and this last season of the NBA) he has consistently shot between 37% - 40.7% from 3PT range.
So there is FAR MORE evidence suggesting that he is a
good shooter than a bad one.
It is extremely probable that he will likely be somewhere in the range of 37-40% from 3PT land going forward.
I will readily accept your retreat to the assertion that Lee is probably a more 'polished' offensive player. Given that he has several years of experience on Bradley, that is to be expected. So far.
It is reasonable to ask folks to tone down the positive hyperbole a bit on Bradley. But you are yourself pushing the negative hyperbole to an extreme. It undercuts the credibility of your valid points.
Topic: Once Bradley comes back, how does this guard rotation play out? (Read 5014 times)