Bradley and Smart

[Mass_1081]

  Why are people comparing Smart and Young to Bradley? Neither are even close to being finish products, and no way are Smart and Bradley's skill sets comparable. Move Smart to the point and either upgrade your three and keep Bradley or upgrade your two and move him. Winger wanted to see a little more from Bradley this year and he didn't give it to him. I just don't see them keeping both Bradley and IT when one of them needs to be the first guy off the bench and 8 mill is way too much to pay anyone past the sixth man.

[td450]

Smart is only half-baked at this point. He may become much more creative in the next couple of years. And Bradley is not an offensive liability. He just isn't a consistent go to scorer. Yes, it would be nice to have a great two way guard, but there are only a handful of those guys in the league. These two are the least of our worries.

Great defense is cumulative. Smart and Bradley have a greater defensive impact when they are both on the floor, and when you add in Crowder, the sum is much greater than the parts. Those three guys are my favorite part of this team.

[Greyman]

Like both AB and Smart, both would be useful pieces to keep with major additions. Could be that we need to use one to get better pieces through the draft or trade. You pretty much know what you have with AB. While Stevens has expanded his game a little, I doubt he will show major improvement in any area. Smart has potential to improve but that is still no sure thing. If he improves as many expect, he will be the more valuable keep.

I think they have been complementary, with Thomas, rather than redundant in the CBS system. If you lose one you have to replace in that position as I don't think Thomas ever starts in the CBS system. The potential is there to start with other players from the current squad possibly.

[loco_91]

The main issue with AB+MS together is that neither is a primary ballhandler--hence making it necessary to play Evan Turner. That could change, though, as Smart develops. He's shown pretty solid decisionmaking skills this year and I think it's just a matter of time before he takes on full-time ballhandling duties.

[Hemingway]

Some people can never be happy. For all the things we don't have, we do have our 1 and 2 spots taken care of. Smart/AB/IT is good and cheap. If there is a star to get, sure trade anyone, but I wouldn't go looking to move anyone just to move sideways.

With our 1 and 2 locked up cheap (you can also throw Turner in here), we could fix 3 big salaries at the 3 4 and 5. Like 3 max or near to it after the cap fully rises.

[konkmv]

Smart will stay.. bradley? Will be sold on a price higher than his value

[guava_wrench]

The main issue with AB+MS together is that neither is a primary ballhandler--hence making it necessary to play Evan Turner. That could change, though, as Smart develops. He's shown pretty solid decisionmaking skills this year and I think it's just a matter of time before he takes on full-time ballhandling duties.

A lot of starting PG don't post impressive assist totals, especially early in their career. My take is that we let ET facilitate because he was really good at it, not necessarily because Smart can't. I wouldn't take it as a slight against Kyrie as a PG if Lebron runs the offense. Lebron is an elite facilitator. On our mediocre team, we see a similar role for ET.

As you say, Smart seems to make good decisions. He is clearly far better than Bradley at facilitating and running an offense, so Smart has hope at PG. One the downside, Smart has yet to show that he can contribute through scoring. While .335 is not horrible from 3, it is well below the league average of 35%, and he shot a horrid .367 overall.

On the other hand, AB is still very limited on offense and looks like he should be a corner 3 and D guy on a more talented team.

[crimson_stallion]

As a couple of others have said, I wouldn't worry too much about our back-court right now. 

I actually think those three guys compliment each other pretty nicely, and I think that's a big reason why we had so much success to close out the season. 

Bradley + Smart gives us an elite defensive back-court, in which Bradley can handle a good deal of the scoring and Smart can be the ball handler / facilitator.  Smart has a done a better job of the latter then people give him credit for, though he still has a long way to go.

Smart + Thomas gives us a deadly two-way team where Smart can take on the defensive responsibility of guarding the opponents best offensive guard so that Thomas can focus purely on scoring and playmaking. 

The only combination that is questionable is the Thomas + Bradley one, but even that lineup isn't terrible.  Thomas is an excellent ball handler and a pretty good passer, and when he's on the court Bradley has a big offensive load taken off him, so he can focus more of his attention on defensive pressure.  It's also a pretty dangerous lineup offensively because Bradley is a pretty decent outside (and midrange) shooter, so if defense cheats on AB to double/trap Thomas, Bradley is very capable of making them pay with his jumper.  There are certain teams that have enough size to put this combo at a big disadvantage, but there are also a lot of small back-courts in the NBA that a lineup like this can compete fine with. 

With any combination of Thomas, Bradley and Smart we have a quick back-court that can punish teams on the fast break.  I especially like the Smart+Bradley lineup for that, because they can generate a lot of turnovers with their defense and then run, run, run.

In terms of transition game, a lineup like Thomas / Bradley / Turner / Olynyk / Zeller could cause quite a bit of trouble on the fast break, and I think I've even seen BS go with a three guard lineup (Thomas / Bradley / Smart) on occasion which has fared surprisingly well.   

Do you do a sign a trade with Bradley ($7.2M) for which of the following FA's

A) Wesley Matthews (current earnings (7.2)
B) Danny Green ($4.0)
C) Gerald Green ($3.5)
D) Rodney Stuckey ($1.2)

Wesley Matthews - probably not.  A sideways step I think. 

The others, definitely not.

[LilRip]

Our backcourt is good. If anything, we need to shore up the 3 and the interior. I see Smart and Bradley working well together. I think AB is talented enough to be starting for a contending team in the same way Green could be. He's not supposed to be your 2nd or even 3rd best player. He's supposed to be your "Rondo" or "Perk" on that Banner-17 squad.

[LilRip]

Do you do a sign a trade with Bradley ($7.2M) for which of the following FA's

A) Wesley Matthews (current earnings (7.2)
B) Danny Green ($4.0)
C) Gerald Green ($3.5)
D) Rodney Stuckey ($1.2)

Danny Green, easy.