You might not realize it (because I didn’t realize it), but, not only has Tony “The Tony Express” Bradley been with the Jazz for three years now, but he’s actually under contract for a fourth year as well thanks to his rookie extension. Since Bradley only played 29 total minutes (in nine games) during his rookie season and 36 minutes (in three games) during his sophomore season, I don’t blame anybody for losing track of this dude. Even I, the one who is supposed to keep track of all the scrubs in the NBA, lost track of him, and if I’m losing track of him, what hope does anybody else have?
Now Derrick Favors is gone and there’s finally room in the rotation for The Tony Express. He’s already played almost twice the minutes this season as he had played in the entire rest of his career combined. Usually, when you extend a rookie, you want them to have actually shown something on the court before you give them the extension, but, in this case, it might work out for the Jazz, because Bradley definitely seems to be on an upward trajectory towards being a playable player. Note that I am basing all of my opinions of Bradley on this one game and a barely-remembered fifteen-point performance from the end of last season.
This video is not super impressive from a skill standpoint. The main skill that Bradley displays is getting to the right spot in order to catch the ball for layups, but it’s hard to tell how much of that is skill and how much of that is the Pelicans defense just not bothering to stay with him. Bradley also fouled five times in 22 minutes, so I think that’s a skill too. Combine that with nine rebounds, and Bradley showed off at least three different skills in this game. That’s more skills than Thon Maker has ever shown in his life.