Avery Bradley has hired Landmark Sports agent Rob Pelinka, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The Celtics combo guard had been with former NBA player Mitchell Butler of the Vanguard Sports Group and Dan Fegan of Relativity Sports. The move appears to have more to do with Bradley’s off-court career than his playing contract, since he isn’t scheduled to hit free agency again until 2018 after signing a four-year, $32MM deal with Boston in the summer of 2014.
The 25-year-old is averaging a career high 32.5 minutes per game this season, his sixth in the NBA, though he’s running slightly behind his career-best average of 14.9 points per game, which he delivered the season before he signed his contract. He’s made his reputation as a stout defender, though some numbers don’t back that up this season. ESPN’s Real Plus Minus categorizes Bradley as a point guard and places him as the 40th-best defender at that position, while he’s the 64th-best guard overall in Basketball-Reference’s Defensive Box Plus Minus metric.
Pelinka boasts a star-studded list of clients that includes James Harden, the soon-to-retire Kobe Bryant, 2016 free agent Eric Gordon, and Finals MVP Andre Iguodala. Preliminary projections show the salary cap shrinking from $108MM in 2017/18 to $100MM in 2018/19, so Bradley is poised to enter a relatively tough market. Much can change between now and then, however. The Celtics continue to look for a star, so Bradley, like just about everyone else on the roster, isn’t immune from inclusion in a trade.