3 players the Portland Trail Blazers missed out on in free agency

3. Tony Bradley

Let’s play a little game called ‘which player would you rather have?’.

Player A per 36-minutes:

17.3 points, 12.2 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, 66 percent field goal, 70 percent free throw

Player B per 36-minutes:

16.2 points, 11.7 rebounds, 0.6 blocks, 56 percent field goal, 71 percent free throw

The clear answer here is ‘Player A’ right? If you’re still not convinced, let me add that Player A was signed to a cheaper deal, is 5 years younger than Player B, and both have about the same amount of playoff experience.

If it’s not apparent by now, Player A is Tony Bradley and Player B is Cody Zeller. Zeller wasn’t a bad pickup by the Portland Trail Blazers per say, but how quickly the deal came together was a cause for concern.

Backup center was one of the biggest needs for the Blazers entering this offseason, but signing Zeller to fill that role was uninspiring to say the least. The fact that it was announced shortly after free agency began made it seem like he was the number one target all along, while there were significantly better options available and for around the same price point.

Sure Zeller has more experience, but Bradley’s got the much higher ceiling. Buried by Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors for most of his career, he hasn’t gotten much opportunity to prove his worth in this league, but has taken advantage of the scarce openings he did receive.

In the eight games he started for the Philadelphia 76ers last year, he averaged 7.3 points and 6.9 rebounds while shooting 70 percent from the floor in 21 minutes per game. He also finished a +60 in his time on the floor with Joel Embiid sidelined by injury.

In one of those games, he scored 18 points on 8-8 shooting and added 11 rebounds, two steals, and two blocks, helping to lead the Sixers to a comeback victory over the Golden State Warriors.

We probably won’t see many plays like this from Cody Zeller next season, but it won’t be a surprise to see Bradley grow into an impact player with the Chicago Bulls.

With limited spending money, it would have been encouraging to see Neil Olshey take some risks in free agency. Instead he opted to go with more safe and secure signings like Zeller and Snell. Tony Bradley will be a risk Olshey will regret not taking.