NBA Trade Rumors: Pistons making Avery Bradley available
As the Detroit Pistons fall down the Eastern Conference standings, they are making Avery Bradley available in trade talks.
With a 14-6 start this season, the Detroit Pistons were one of the more surprising teams in the NBA. But they’ve fallen off lately, and according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski the Pistons have made shooting guard Avery Bradley available in trade talks.
The Pistons have lost eight straight games, nine of their last 10 and 12 of their 15 contests since point guard Reggie Jackson went down with an ankle injury. Their 22-26 record has them in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, three games behind the Philadelphia 76ers for the final playoff spot. So a move to be sellers at the trade deadline may be coming.
Bradley had the best season of his career with the Boston Celtics in 2016-17. He averaged 16.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game, while shooting over 46 percent from the floor and 39 percent from beyond the arc over 55 games. But the offseason move to trade him for forward Marcus Morris now looks like a very shrewd one by Danny Ainge.
Bradley is averaging 15.0 points while shooting just under 41 percent from the floor so far this season, as he has battled groin and hamstring issues. For a guy that has missed at least five games in six straight seasons now, durability concerns were easy to see coming.
Bradley is making $8.8 million in the final year of his contract, so he could draw interest as a rental player before hitting unrestricted free agency in July. A perceived defensive ace, advanced metrics show a drop for Bradley on that end of the floor as well so far this year. Even with his decline this season, Wojnarowski suggested Bradley could command $20 million a year in free agency.
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The Pistons reportedly have a significant asking price for Bradley so far. But if they really want to get rid of him, that asking price may have to come down significantly over the next 10 days heading into the Feb. 8 trade deadline.