Avery Bradley, A Long Wait For A Future Star

When John Wall and Avery Bradley were seniors in High School they were neck in neck for the #1 player ranking.  Of course Wall went on to blossom at Kentucky, become the #1 overall pick by the Wizards and has already had a 28 point, 9 assist game in just his second NBA game.  He will star in commercials, likely be the rookie of the year and perhaps an All Star.

Meanwhile Avery Bradley, the 6,3 guard who played one season at Texas remains deep on the bench for the Boston Celtics.  Starting point guard Rajon Rondo is one of the top point guards in the league and the rest of the team is made up of veteran performers who are pushing for one more shot at a championship.  All this leaves Avery Bradley with little shot at playing time and through three games he has seen a grand total of zero minutes on the court.

Bradley may provide value off the Celtics bench as a late game energy player and defensive stopper but he will spend a lot of long nights watching from the sidelines.  He has the future, in my opinion, a potential lockdown defender on the perimeter and along with Rondo could be a defensive nightmare for slower backcourts to deal with.  But it might be just as likely that Bradley remains on the bench for most of his rookie year, seeing only garbage minutes in blowout wins and loses.

All this raises the question of whether Bradley should have stayed at Texas, not just to improve his draft position but to get the playing time needed to hone his point guard skills.  Of course playing against the like of Rondo in practice every day is an education in and of itself but it leaves me to wonder:  If Bradley had known that he would not be getting minutes as a rookie would he still have chosen to enter the 2010 draft?

For now, he sits and waits.  A star in the waiting.....