Erik Spoelstra explains why Avery Bradley is a ‘Heat guy,’ and how he’s going to help
It didn’t take long for veteran guard Avery Bradley to realize what makes a Miami Heat practice different.
“I think it definitely is unique,” Bradley said of the Heat’s way of doing things. “I feel like not only are [players] tied together, but the discipline and the dedication that everyone has and buys into from Day 1 of training camp. You could just feel the energy and the intensity. Guys were just locked in and pushing each other from the first day, and they said there’s no drop-offs. This is the way we practice every single time we lace our shoes up.”
That comment came following Bradley’s third team practice with the Heat, as he signed a two-year, $11.6 million contract with the Heat this offseason. The deal includes a $5.6 million salary this upcoming season and a team option next season.
But with Miami opening its two-game preseason schedule Monday against the New Orleans Pelicans at a fanless AmericanAirlines Arena amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Heat coaches and players already realize Bradley is pretty unique himself as a one of the most reliable perimeter defenders in the NBA.
“You see him as a 6-2, 6-3 guard, but he’s able to literally defend one through four,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And offensively, he’s a player that can fit in any system, because he can play off the ball, you can put the ball in his hands. He can play as a point guard. You can play him running off of dribble hand offs. Or he can just play off of your great players or your great offensive threats. And he’ll find a way to be effective. And that’s what we’ve already seen in a couple of days.
“I know he’s going to make Tyler [Herro] and [Kendrick Nunn] better just from practices. His level of intensity and his on-ball defense is incredible. It’s an area we felt we could improve, not only in player development, but with a personnel addition. He has checked that box, just with what we’ve seen in a short period of time.”
Point-of-attack perimeter defense was a Heat weakness opponents tried to take advantage of last season, with teams repeatedly running isolation sets against players such as Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson in the playoffs.
Bradley (6-3, 180), who turned 30 on Nov. 26, will certainly help in that area this season. He was named to the NBA’s All-Defensive first team in 2016 and All-Defensive second team in 2013, and Portland Trail Blazers star guard Damian Lillard once called Bradley the best perimeter defender in the league.
For a Heat team that was statistically mediocre on defense last season (12th-best defensive rating in the regular season), the hope is the addition of Bradley will help push Miami back into the top 10 in that category. The Heat finished with a top-10 defense in four consecutive seasons before the streak was snapped last season.
“Once I get an opportunity to be out there with Bam [Adebayo] and Jimmy [Butler], Jimmy’s IQ and Bam being able to talk to us, and our defensive intensity on the floor, I think it could be very special,” Bradley said. “We have a goal to be one of the top defenses in the league this year, and I think we are definitely capable of doing that because we definitely have the personnel.”
Players shot 40.6 percent last season when Bradley defended them, which was 4.8 percent worse than their overall shooting percentage of 45.4 percent, according to NBA Advanced Stats.
But Bradley, who is expected to be used as a reserve this season and help fill the void left by the free agent departures of forward Jae Crowder and wing Derrick Jones Jr., can also help stretch the floor on the offensive end for the Heat.
Bradley has shot 36.4 percent from three-point range during his 10-year NBA career. He averaged 8.6 points while shooting 36.4 percent (63 of 173) on threes in 49 games (44 starts) with the Los Angeles Lakers last season before opting out of playing in the NBA’s Disney bubble primarily because his oldest child, 6-year-old son Liam, had a history of struggling to recover from respiratory illnesses.
“Anybody you talk to will say that he is one of their best team guys that they’ve had,” Spoelstra said. “He is all about the team, about winning, about doing all the things that most players don’t want to do, he’s willing to do all of those things. Take on the biggest defensive challenges, guard multiple positions, play off the ball, be unselfish. He can put the ball in the basket too and in a lot of different ways. But he just looks it, feels it, you research it, he just seems like a Heat guy.”
THIS AND THAT
▪ Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy on the Heat’s run to the NBA Finals last season: “They played very, very well. I think it was a testament to the fact that the games are played on the court, not in the media, not what we all predicted. The games are played on the court. They had a good run. They played extremely hard. They played extremely well together. Erik’s teams always play with great, great confidence.”
Van Gundy, who was the Heat’s head coach from 2003 to 2005, called some of Miami’s games late last season for TNT after play restarted in the league’s quarantine bubble. He’s entering his first season as the Pelicans’ head coach.
▪ Robinson on whether he was able to improve his game during the Heat’s short two-month offseason: “I definitely think I’ve improved. A huge part of it, in the limited time, most of the time is spent just getting your body back. That’s where a lot of my emphasis was and continue to improve specific skill areas. Obviously, improving my conditioning and my physicality will help me defensively. But I think the biggest area that I’ve noticed is just how much slowed down everything is. A lot of that just comes from the invaluable experience that you have making the run like we did last year. I think that’s where I’ve noticed the biggest difference.”
