Utah Jazz second year center Tony Bradley hasn’t played in a game yet this season, but the opportunities have been there.
The NBA G-League is phenomenal. It’s an amazing way for young players to develop their game and get to the NBA level. However, there’s nothing more monumental than playing in an NBA game. Even if it’s just for a few minutes during garbage time.
That’s something Utah Jazz center Tony Bradley has missed out on. While he’s playing well for the Salt Lake City Stars of the G-League, he could have already played in as many NBA games as he played last season. The Jazz’s games have been decided by double-digits a whopping 17 times so far this year. That’s well over half of the first portion of the season.
It’s either a blowout win or a blowout loss for Utah. For instance, they lost by 50 points to the Dallas Mavericks back in November, and they also lost by 33 points to the Indiana Pacers on their home floor. On the opposite token, the Jazz have won games by large margins. They beat the Miami Heat by 27 points Wednesday night, and beat the San Antonio Spurs by 34 earlier this month.
That being said, it still would have technically been garbage time minutes for Bradley, but they would have been the most opportunistic garbage time minutes. Rather than playing a minute and change, Bradley could have played eight or nine minutes over the last two games, like Ekpe Udoh did. Wednesday night was, as I mentioned, destruction against Miami. Before that, the Jazz were getting blown out against the Oklahoma City Thunder until their third string garbage time players made a huge run.
Quin Snyder recently said the Jazz are pleased with Bradley’s progress, which is good news. He’s clearly a huge project the Jazz want to work with. This season for the Stars, Bradley has averaged about 15 points and eight rebounds per game. That’s great and all, but like I said, nothing beats experience on the NBA hardwood.
The Jazz should at least call Bradley up soon and see if another blowout win or loss is in the books to get him into his first game of the season. I think the center from North Carolina could be in for rotation minutes next season, since Ekpe Udoh is on an expiring contract and Derrick Favors has a team option on his contract.
It’s been a long wait for Bradley, and it’s required a lot of patience. One thing’s for sure, though, it’ll be worth the wait in the end.