As others have said, Gordon has performed at a near all-star level for two seasons. Bradley has done it for about a month total, which indicates more of a fluke than anything. When we had to rely more on Bradley this season, he disappointed us big time.
He significantly hurt us on offense with his poor ball handling, terrible passing, mediocre shooting, and innability to finish at the rim.
As for his defense, Felton absolutely destroyed him in the Knicks series. Enough said.
Gordon is a proven scorer and ball handler with decent defense. The celtics are in desperate need of offensive help. He would be money well spent. Ainge always looks down the road. I believe he already knows he doesn't want to give Bradley a long term deal when his current contract is up.
Gordon performed at a 'near' all star level ... when?
He had a good rookie season. Good enough to deserve being in the ROY conversation. That's not necessarily 'near all star'.
His sophmore season was almost as good as his first season.
But EVERY SINGLE YEAR he has _declined_ in shooting efficiency. Yes, he has managed do score a decent volume of points. He broke 20ppg in each of 2011 & 2012. But he only did so by launching a ton of shots.
The fact that his efficiency has declined steadily, every year after his first season is an indicator that NBA defenses have figured out how to defend him - and that he hasn't adjusted or is not able to adjust.
Let me repeat: Gordon's shooting efficiency has declined _steadily_ each year, every year he's been in the NBA. And this last year it was NO BETTER THAN BRADLEY'S!!!
You want to toss almost $45M over the next three years at this guy?
That's insane.
It's entirely possible that Bradley, too, has been 'figured out' defensively by opposing teams. Or that his offense will not recover from this year's troubles. But the sample sizes on him (and the larger context and his youth) are such that there is plenty of reason for optimism that his offense will be at least better than it was this last year.
And Bradley is cheap and still under rookie contract control.
Looking at Felton's bursty scoring output as some sort of sign that Bradley's defense was somehow getting ripped in the NYK series is just wrong. Defense isn't measured by how many points one player scored. It's measured by how many that player's team scores.
The fact is, we lost that series because out team as a whole couldn't shoot. Not because of our defense. Overall, the Knicks' high scoring offense was held in check.
And of our regular rotation players, Bradley's defensive rating in the series was second only to KG's on our team.
As I've said elsewhere, I'm not opposed to trading either Pierce or Bradley or both for the right deal(s).
But this proposed deal is just plain awful and makes no sense. Eric Gordon is not the answer.
Topic: Supposed rumor between NO and BOS (Read 23059 times)