Tony Bradley enters the 2018-19 season buried in the depth chart, but his play over the summer showed that he’s improving and deserves a shot at increased playing time.
Sometimes we forget how young some of these players are coming into the league. Tony Bradley, who is just 20, still has a long career ahead of him. He may not get the playing time he’d like this early into his career, but he’s shown a good amount of progress.
Bradley had some really great moments in Summer League for the Utah Jazz, and you get the impression that he could be a weapon for the Jazz in the future. However, with the way this Jazz team is currently constructed, he’s going to have a tough time finding playing time once again.
He is currently behind Rudy Gobert, Derrick Favors and Ekpe Udoh on the depth chart. Can he leapfrog a guy like Udoh and get some sporadic playing time? It wouldn’t surprise me at all.
Best Case Scenario
The best case for Bradley would be, like I said, leapfrogging Ekpe Udoh in the rotation and snagging some backup center minutes. Udoh stayed ready last season, and made a solid impact for the Jazz both on and off the court. If Bradley can get playing time like Udoh did, it would be big for his development.
He’s got good size and a good build, and is always a rebounding threat when he’s on the court. He’s improved his finishing around the basket and continues to try and stretch his range out to the three-point line.
Bradley also looked better defensively during Summer League. He has the length to alter shots and make a difference on that end.
Udoh is a reliable big to have on the bench because you know what you’re going to get from him. He always brings defense and energy, and the team is just flat-out better when he is on the court. It may be a difficult task for Bradley to jump past Udoh in the rotation.
But, the point is, Bradley appears to have made some strides. He looked great in Summer League and I am certainly eager to get a look at him playing meaningful minutes, not just garbage time minutes. Hopefully that comes this season.
Worst Case Scenario
Bradley’s worst case scenario would be a repeat of his rookie season, where he only appeared in nine NBA games. Don’t get me wrong, he developed nicely as the season went on in the G-League, but a goal for him has got to be appearing in more than just nine games for the Jazz.
Plus, every game that Bradley played was mostly just minutes towards the end of the game. He’s got to see meaningful NBA time as much as he possibly can. Like I said earlier, it’s not going to be easy for him to find minutes on this team, so it’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out.
It would be nice to get a look at him in the rotation. The Jazz are committed to developing Bradley, so even if he doesn’t get much NBA time, he’ll still be getting better in practices and in the G-League.
He has the talent, he has the size, now all he needs is the opportunity. Time will tell if that opportunity comes during the 2018-19 season.