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It 100% would have been a better choice. Bradley is already showing potential to be one of the best defensive guards in the league, to be able to rest Parker and bring in a guy who will defend the opposing point would make this team even better.
I was watching Boston vs Atlanta a week ago or so (?) and heard the announcers were really high on Bradley, how he was a nice back-up PG behind Rondo and a good prospect. He certainly seems to have improved a lot and be a real contributor this year.
I looked up to see when he was drafted, mostly to check whether he was a lottery pick, or a player the Spurs could somehow have drafted.
Lo and behold, Bradley was drafted by Boston right before the Spurs drafted Anderson in 2010.
Anderson was injured, and then it looks like he won't have a career in SA.
In retrospect, if Boston hadn't drafted Bradley just in front of us, do you think the Spurs would have drafted him? Would it have been a better choice? (based on this year's production it seems Bradley > Anderson)
I'm asking this especially because the Spurs need a back-up PG badly (for years) and it never seems to work out (assuming we draft one, I think only Joseph and possibly De Colo were drafted with this mind). I never watch Boston and don't know Bradley, which is why I'm asking.
It 100% would have been a better choice. Bradley is already showing potential to be one of the best defensive guards in the league, to be able to rest Parker and bring in a guy who will defend the opposing point would make this team even better.
He would be a better choice than Anderson no doubt but he isn't a true PG. He is a combo guard in the same mold of George Hill. Much more of a 2.
When i take a look in that 2010 draft i simply can't be mad with our choice. Anderson was the BPO.
After the lottery, that draft sucked badly. IMO, our first choice in that draft was Kevin Seraphin but Washington took him first. He is a decent prospect, much better than Anderson.
Too bad things didn't worked out as we expected with Anderson. He looked decent before the injury.
Avery Bradley by a mile.
I think the question is..... who wouldn't be better than Anderson?
They wouldn't have taken Bradley. No need to draft a 6'2" tweener who can't shoot when you already had a 6'2" tweener on the roster who could shoot in George Hill. Bradley's found himself a nice niche in Boston, but given the priority the Spurs put on outside shooting that role doesn't exist for him here.
We were ALL - I mean every single one of us - pretty excited about the way Anderson played in his rookie season, before getting hurt. He was never the same after coming back from that injury. But that doesn't mean that he wasn't legit at the time he was drafted.
In his rookie season, Avery Bradley was a defense-first PG, who wasn't really a PG. His offense has taken a surge this season. But if you look at the game logs, you will see that a lot of that has been against some of the weaker-defending Eastern Conference teams. He's a good defender, but he's also playing within one of the best defensive systems in the league. In other words - he has some help.
At the time Bradley was drafted, the Spurs already had a 6'2" guy, with a big wingspan, who played pretty good defense - George Hill. I'm not so sure the Spurs would have drafted another one. And if they had, most people here would have screamed about it, since what the Spurs needed was size.
One thing worth noting is that, even now, Bradley averages just 1.4 assists per game - that's just 2.3 per 36 minutes. Gary Neal, who we know is limited at the point, averaged 2.1 assists per 36 last season, and 3.5 this season. George Hill, who was also limited at the point, averaged 3.9, 3.6, and 3.2 AST/36 in his three seasons with the Spurs. When I say Bradley isn't a PG, I mean he really, really isn't a PG. And even though he's a good defender, he'll never be more than 6'2", which limits who he can defend.
So ask yourself this: with all the screaming Spurs fans have done about the need for size, how would you have felt about the Spurs drafting another player in the mold of George Hill, instead of someone at least Anderson's height? I think you've got your answer.
I didn't realize Bradley was in the mold of George Hill, so it indeed wouldn't have made sense back then, and probably wouldn't help that much right now. Looking at the draft I was expecting Bradley to be more a pure PG.
Thanks for the comments.
It was a good question, and I didn't mean for my answer to sound so abrupt. Mostly, it was aimed at people who act like Anderson is a bad guy, or like he never played well here. He's one guy I look at and think what might have been. He was looking to be a solid part of the rotation before the injury, and I think it was hard for him to lose that. I really do hope he can work his way back somewhere. I think it will have to be in Europe for a couple of years. But I really do feel for the guy more than most.
I'm with you on that, and unless a player is really de able, I always wish him all the best and success in his career. Sadly it seems that SA is now a dead end for Anderson.
When I heard the announcers tout Bradley, I really thought he was a lottery pick and out of reach of the Spurs in any case. Actually Anderson at 20 is technically the highest draft pick we got since drafting Duncan, and one of the highest if we include Leonard (who, again technically, was drafted by Indiana). So it hurts even more that it didn't work out.
What an absolutely crappy draft that was. Even if you want to play the shoulda/coulda/woulda game second guessing the Spurs taking Anderson, you've got Landry Fields at #39 who you could have taken, and that's about it.
The kid JA got a really bad injury to his foot, having suffered a similar one on his other foot. I think that set his development back by a very long way. He seems to be a legitimate SG at times, but his finishing seems way off. It looks like his body has not made the adjustment necessary after his injury.
But considering some of the absolutely useless NBA players around (nearly the entire Bobcats roster for e.g. ..guys like Matt Carroll) have survived with far lesser talent, I think Anderson will eke out a career somewhere if not for the Spurs.
More than a few Spurs rejects have carved out places for themselves after being picked from nowhere by them - guys like Anthony Tolliver, Alonzo Gee, and even Mahinmi. I suppose Anderson will get that chance elsewhere too.
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