Utah Jazz: Tony Bradley’s development is gaining importance

Amidst a tough stretch and lots of speculation surrounding Rudy Gobert’s future with the Utah Jazz, Tony Bradley’s development has gained importance.

At one point, I thought there was zero chance Rudy Gobert would ever leave the Utah Jazz. I’m still feeling confident about that, but it’s hard to ignore some of the things that are going on.

Gobert has obviously not been happy about his touches in games — mostly during their recent 4-game losing skid — and he’s letting it affect his play.

The Jazz can offer Gobert a boat-load of money. Money that would be hard to decline. Money that could make any front office hesitate, despite it going to their All-Star center.

It would really limit their flexibility, given Donovan Mitchell will be off his rookie contract soon enough and Bojan Bogdanovic signed a big four-year deal in the off-season.

With all that being said, the importance of developing backup center Tony Bradley has increased. His development has already been nice — he came out of school very early and two years later, he’s playing consistent minutes for a team with championship aspirations.

Bradley has work to do on defense, but he’s looking good offensively. He doesn’t have much — if any — post moves. However, he’s a beast on the offensive glass, is a solid free-throw shooter, has a nice push-shot and just plays hard. He shoots a very efficient 64 percent from the field.

He made his first career three-pointer last game against the Washington Wizards. I don’t expect him to ever shoot many threes, but I do think he’s more than capable of stepping in and knocking down some 15-footers.

At the end of the day, Bradley is only 22 years old and he’s a guy the Jazz are going to want to hang onto. Whether he’s starting one day, while Gobert is elsewhere, or playing behind Gobert for many years. The Jazz won’t have to worry about Gobert going anywhere until 2021.