NBA All Defensive First Team:
Kawhi Leonard, DeAndre Jordan, Draymond Green, Chris Paul.... and Avery Bradley (!)
Good for Avery!
Kawhi Leonard, DeAndre Jordan, Draymond Green, Chris Paul.... and Avery Bradley (!)
Good for Avery!
That's for sure. He gets away with a lot of cheap crap that other players aren't allowed to do. Congrats to AB, though. Much deserved.He's really that good. Part of it is understanding the officiating, because he is one of the more physical, hands-on guards in the league and it does not look fun having to deal with getting pushed around all game, but he's still squarely in his prime and can ruin almost any guard's day on the defensive end.
In no other league do the NBA stars enjoy a greater disparity of how they play and what they get to do. Stars get calls in all leagues but the NBA Star Treatment is a whole other level. Greg Stiemsma would just check in and literally get called. LeBron can hammer a guy to death and get away with it. The NBA just works like that.Please. The only people who complain about the referees are the people who are losing. Tony Allen puts his hands all over everybody and he is beloved. Ditto Green, ditto Z-Bo, ditto Jimmy Butler. This is the norm. No sports league is officiated per the rules on the paper; understanding the differences between the rules and the reality is a competitive advantage.
True, he's under appreciated since he's not an elite scorer and even his defense doesn't produce eye popping steal and block totals (ranked 23rd in steals with 117 this season, only 5 more than Thad Young). His defense isn't just steals, its ball denial and closing space which he does very well.Bradley is a pretty underrated player so glad he's finally getting recognition. I whined to some of my non-Celtics fan friends after his injury and some of them responded like, "so, what?" Don't think his talents are fully recognized by some fans outside of Boston.
You are pretty spot on here. The aggressor is going to be the beneficiary of the officiating the majority of the time. The elite players such as LeBron and Paul, who are also aggressive place additional pressure on the defenses who cannot contain their first step which allows them to create angles placing the defender out of position. An out of position defender is susceptible to more whistles than one who is in position against a lesser offensive player.Maybe all of that's true, but I'd like to see it borne out by evidence.
Just last night Lowry stole the ball from Lebron and hacked the shit out of him and there was no call at all. Was that because Lowry is a superstar?
My sense is more that physical teams (rather than individual players) set a tone in games that the referees either adapt to or don't - doing so makes for a more watchable game, which makes for happier viewers, like me. If some players can't hang, that's their problem.
And if you go out there in a game with a low defensive intensity and start playing really physical individual defense, well, yeah, you might get some fouls called on you - it's not the game being played.
Anyways, good for Bradley. There's few people who are as much fun to watch playing on ball defense against point guards, and I'm happy he got rewarded. Here's to his continued improvement at the rim and from beyond the arc.