Tony Bradley is expected to be raw, but the Utah Jazz have an excellent role model for him to learn from in All-NBA center Rudy Gobert.
As the NBA has evolved, it’s become more and more standard for prospects to be picked based on their potential rather than what they’ve already shown at a high level. For the Utah Jazz, no player exemplifies this more than Tony Bradley, whom the team picked up with the 28th pick in this summer’s draft.
Playing just one season at the University of North Carolina, Bradley appeared in just 14.6 minutes per game for the eventual national champions, putting up 7.1 points and 5.1 rebounds in the process.
Those numbers on their own wouldn’t be enough to merit first round draft status if not for Bradley’s excellent measurables. Standing 6’11” and a solid 240 pounds, he has a solid frame for a center, and his ridiculous 7’5″ wingspan only adds to his potential.
With not much to build on save for his knack for securing rebounds on the offensive glass, the Jazz will have to teach their new center the finer points of pick-and-roll defense, rim protection, touch around the hoop and a more disciplined manner of defending if they want to see any results.
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Luckily for both parties, the current Utah administration is no stranger to this very process. It was just four years ago that the team brought in a lanky French big man named Rudy Gobert in the draft, a lengthy prospect lacking in elite ball skills but possessing otherworldly physical attributes.
Gobert’s DraftExpress profile mentions his lack of polish, as does Bradley’s, but their weaknesses were said to come in different areas. Gobert was already a gifted defender in the paint, but had little control of the game on the offensive end and looked uncomfortable outside his specialty areas. Bradley is less dominant a shot-blocker, rejecting just 22 shots total (1.6 per 40 minutes) on the season and has similar limitations on offense.
For Gobert, the team set off on a plan to turn him into the best and most valuable version of himself he could be. Credit goes to the front office for recognizing the direction the league was moving and focusing his skills accordingly, as outlined in an ESPN TrueHoop feature:
"“There was a method to Lindsey’s approach. Gobert’s value has many aspects, and Lindsey intends to maximize it by narrowing the big man’s focus… the team’s bottom-line goal was easy for Lindsey to summarize: They believe Gobert can dominate games as a role player.”"
Dominate he has, as Gobert finished last season in the top three in both offensive and defensive rating league-wide — an incredible feat to say the least. His impact is still felt most on the defensive end, where he wound up as the runner-up in the Defensive Player of the Year voting.
He also led the league with 2.6 blocks per game, finished first in defensive win shares with 6.0, and gathered 12.8 rebounds per game for good measure. In terms of total gravity, there’s probably not a more impactful player in the league.
Perhaps more impressive has been Gobert’s transition from complete non-factor to complementary asset on the offensive end. A monster in the pick-and-roll game, he graded out in the 95th percentile as the roll man, according to Synergy.
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He’s still taking just 7.7 shots per game, with virtually none coming outside of the paint, but the efficiency therein is more important. Gobert led the league with a 68.1 true shooting percentage, mostly on dump-off passes and put-backs.
The key here is the Jazz aren’t forcing touches to Gobert in any spot where it doesn’t give them the best possible return.
Only 4.2 percent of his possessions were used on post-ups, which tend to be more inefficient than other play sets last season, right in line with Lindsey’s outlined vision.
Maybe this changes without Gordon Hayward next year running the offense, but either way, the blueprint has been set, by the Jazz as well as the other elite teams that overwhelmingly tend to feature a low-usage, defensive-minded big.
We can only assume this will be applied to Bradley’s development as well. Like Gobert, he has one elite skill (rebounding) that should translate right away and a host of trades to learn to become a complete player.
His learning curve can be simplified in the same was Gobert’s was. He should first and foremost focus on adding the skills that complement the Jazz defensive schemes, such as staying in front of ball-handlers turning the corner on a pick-and-roll.
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Learning to operate as a roll man should also be a priority so as not to be a liability on offense. In NBA Summer League, Bradley’s output was almost entirely dependent on whether or not he could garner points on put-backs.
Perhaps after that, and this is a couple years down the road, Bradley can look towards cultivating the finer aspects of his game, such as the fledgling jump shot he flashed glimpses of during Summer League and his freshman season.
Don’t expect to see too much from the rookie right away. Gobert entered the league more prepared than Bradley and yet still played just 9.6 minutes per game for a 25-win Jazz team in the 2013-14 season.
Bradley will, barring injury, see most of his court time with the Salt Lake City Stars, the Jazz’s G League affiliate. As it stands now, he won’t be the starter at the 5 at any point, but with backup Epke Udoh on a team option for next season, he has an opportunity to take over a larger role depending on his improvement.
Next: 2017 NBA Draft grades for all 30 teams
It’s not easy to add NBA-level skills that weren’t there when you enter the league, but Tony Bradley has all the inspiration and example to look up to in his teammate Rudy Gobert.