When the Lakers elected to guarantee Avery Bradley’s contract for the rest of the year last week, it was an acknowledgement of how integral they feel he’s become for this team’s defensive identity.
The Lakers may only be slightly better defensively (and worse overall) with Bradley on the floor than they are when he’s off, per NBA.com, but those season-long metrics are skewed by Bradley often starting and guarding opponents’ best scorers, and from him being healthy during an earlier portion of the season when LeBron James was not.
Ask his teammates and coaches, and they’ll tell you that the Bradley they see every day is a player who has earned a starting spot, one who metrics can’t capture the full impact of.