Your Morning Dump…where Avery Bradley continues to impress, even off the court

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

 Unable to do many physical activities with his upper body, Bradley focused on the mental approach to the game. He studied film — a lot of

gamefilm — after watching Rondo do the same over the years. Soon he began seeing the court differently, comparing the realization to solving a Magic Eye puzzle. By shifting the way he watched the action, he opened his eyes to a completely different point of view.

“There were some of those things (head coach) Doc (Rivers) would yell at us about,” Bradley said. “[He would] look at us like, ‘Are you serious? You don’t see that? You don’t see what I see?’ We’d be like, ‘No, we don’t.’

“Now I see those things and I look at people that way, like, ‘Why aren’t you doing things that way?’ I look at the game completely different, it’s weird. It’s like once you know the plays and you feel comfortable, you know all the other teams’ sets, it’s like you know everything and it’s just easier. I know Paul (Pierce) and them can say the same thing, too.”

CSNNE: Celtics’ Bradley overcoming bumps in road to recovery

Take away the fact that Avery Bradley is a Longhorn and my long fueled passion for the Longhorns made Bradley an instant favorite for me upon joining the Celtics, Avery Bradley is really impressive both on and off the court. Last season, Bradley enjoyed a breakout season where he landed as the Celtics starting two guard, unseating future Hall of Famer Ray Allen. Thanks to his tenacious defense and improving offensive attack, Bradley started to look like a guy that would be a part of the rebuilding process and quite the asset to have on your side. Unfortunately as we all know by now a double shoulder surgery took Bradley out of the playoffs and on the path to recovery again (He missed part of his rookie season due to ankle surgery).

Those who read the article stand to be mightily impressed with the effort that Bradley is putting in to doing what he can to improve his game despite his limitations as he continues to recover. He is spending more time learning the game through film, studying tendencies of his team and opponents. Rare is it that you will find a young player in the league dedicate themselves to studying film in this manner, and it can only stand to help boost Bradley to whole different pantheon should he be able to take that film knowledge and translate it onto the court.

The two biggest criticisms of Bradley when he entered the league were that he had an inconsistent game on the offensive end of the floor, and that he lacked the court vision and ball handling skills to be a true Point Guard. Studying film will obviously give Bradley a shot at improving the court vision aspect of things, and his offensive has steadily improved since entering the league. Combine those two aspects with his elite level defensive ability and Bradley may quickly become a household name outside of Boston. But before we get ahead of ourselves, lets remember that we may not reap these benefits right away, bear in mind that much of the time Bradley will spend in the regular season will be spent trying to re-acclimate himself to playing at the NBA level, but come playoff time it is fair to expect that Bradley will be hitting his stride and we can all hope that it is then that we will see the hard work that Bradley put in during his time away from the game. Next to Rondo, Bradley has quickly become one of the members of the short “Do not trade” list in my books.

 The Rest of the Links

ESPN Boston: Practice Notes: Pick and roll D the focus WEEI: Doc:Bradley still doing ‘nothing’ in practice CSNNE: Rondo, Williams ready to face off in guard driven league Boston Herald: Rondo right on target Boston Herald: Doc Rivers’ post-it note: Get ball into Kevin Garnett ESPN Boston: Best of both worlds for Joseph