I guess I'm just not willing to blindly assume because a player is 23 he will continue to improve and his numbers will naturally go up. If that were true, we'd never have a bad contract in this league for any player under 25.
Did you SEE Bradley as a rookie? How about his second year in the league? He frequently looked like hot garbage that was going to be out of the NBA before he got a second contract. Literally all he could do on the court was pressure the ball. Bradley's improvement has been tremendous.
Now, it's fair to look at Bradley today and says it's highly unlikely he's going to become a hall of famer or perennial all-star. But there's every indication he's going to become a very good player and pretending otherwise is foolish.
Mike
I agree that Bradley will continue to improve, but let's relax on the hot garbage comment. I think people need to start looking at rookie players differently. Too many see poor numbers and assume they suck. When I watched Bradley his rookie year, I saw a guy who understood defensive schemes incredibly well and a guy who knew how to move without the ball. The form on his jumpshot also looked really, really good. His shot just wasn't falling for him.
Now guys like Fab, JJJ, Pruitt, etc. Those guys were hot garbage. They looked clueless. They had no idea how to run a play or do anything out there. Pruitt just hung out in the corner for the most part. Surprisingly the only guy I'm surprised didn't turn into a decent rotation level player at the least was Lester Hudson. I was wrong about that guy, lol.
Just a pet peeve of mine..
I guess I'm just not willing to blindly assume because a player is 23 he will continue to improve and his numbers will naturally go up. If that were true, we'd never have a bad contract in this league for any player under 25.
See you just aren't understanding the context, I think then. Before Bradley's rookie year, he was out the whole summer with ankle injuries. He had no time to train for his rookie year. Then before his second year, the NBA went through a lock-out so while practiced, training camp was shortened and delayed. He still showed a huge improvement by the second half of the season despite barely having any offseason time with his NBA team. After the lock-out season, Bradley had double-shoulder surgery once again sidelining his off-season plans. It wasn't until after the 2012-2013 season that Bradley finally had his first, full, real NBA off-season. This matters for young players. If you want to speak to the point that he is injury prone, that's fine. He definitely has been, but let's not pretend Bradley has had a ton of time to develop in his time in the NBA. He might as well be entering his third NBA season with the amount of time he has had to train and prepare for NBA seasons. He's young, and he's improved tremendously with his range and confidence with little time to do so.