Avery Bradley

Welcome to our annual Lakers season in review series, where we’ll be taking a look back at every player on the team’s roster this season, evaluating their play, and deciding if they should be a part of the organization’s future. Today, we take a closer look at Avery Bradley.

For a host of practical — and common-sense — reasons, Nick Nurse spurning the Raptors for the Lakers seems to be a hypothetical losing steam already. Part of the reason is the way the Lakers continue to work as a franchise, particularly when it came to the constant undercutting of their previous head coach from the very beginning of the process.

No one anticipated Avery Bradley would have a second stop in Los Angeles when the team opened training camp in September. Circumstances in the form of injuries for the Lakers and Bradley being waived by the Warriors led to the guard returning to Los Angeles to don the purple and gold for the second time in three years.

A look at Lakers guard Avery Bradley's key stats, contract status, preseason expectations, reality on April 10 and the future after 2021-22 season.

Bradley is starting Friday's game against the Pelicans, NBA writer Marc Stein reports. Bradley was absent from three of the last four games despite being healthy, but he'll join the starting lineup in Friday's matchup. Across 42 starts earlier in the year, he averaged 7.1 points and 2.5 rebounds in 25.5 minutes per game.

The Los Angeles Lakers finally got back in the win column on Friday night, beating the Toronto Raptors in overtime to snap an 11-game road losing streak. While the win doesn’t fix everything in Lakerland, it is a nice start and perhaps something the team can build off of moving forward, which Avery Bradley alluded to postgame.

Things have not been going particularly well for the Los Angeles Lakers this season. Barring a miracle, Los Angeles’ path to the postseason involves going through the play-in tournament, and while there’s no one reason why they’ve struggled this year above everything else, the team’s big offseason swing to acquire Russell Westbrook has not paid the dividends they expected.

Bradley closed Friday's 128-123 overtime win over Toronto with 14 points (4-8 FG, 4-7 3Pt, 2-2 FT), three rebounds, one assist and one steal over 25 minutes. Bradley scored 14 points in the win, the first time he has put up double-digit points in over a month. Despite a somewhat consistent role, Bradley is not particularly close to being a standard league fantasy asset. In deeper formats, managers would need to see more games like this before considering him a worthwhile addition.

The Lakers are in the thick of yet another losing streak after falling to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, and hopefully they’ll get reinforcements back soon. Frank Vogel spoke to the media before the game and provided an update on both Avery Bradley and Kendrick Nunn. Bradley is reportedly day-to-day while dealing with knee swelling, but he could be back on the court soon. Nunn, however, has not played in the regular season yet, and it doesn’t look like that’ll happen just yet. Chase Senior brings you the news in today’s Lakers Report video.

Bradley (knee) is available for Saturday's game against the Warriors, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com reports. As expected, Bradley will be available again coming off a right knee injury. However, he wasn't in the rotation Thursday against the Clippers.

Bradley ended with zero points (0-2 FG, 0-2 3Pt), five rebounds and one assist across 16 minutes during Saturday's 124-116 victory over the Warriors. Bradley was technically active for the Lakers' previous game against the Clippers, but he didn't see any court time in that contest. As such, this was his first opportunity to play since missing four games with a right knee injury. He was invisible on offense against the Warriors but did corral five boards in his 16 minutes. Bradley has started 42 of the 50 games in which he has played this season and could return to that role once he ramps back up, but he hasn't produced the type of output that makes him worth rostering in fantasy.

Bradley (knee) is probable for Saturday's game against the Warriors, Harrison Faigen of SBNation.com reports. Bradley returned from a four-game absence Thursday against the Clippers but is still dealing with his knee injury. However, it appears likely that he'll be able to play through the issue once again Saturday.

Bradley (knee) will play Thursday against the Clippers, Daniel Starkand reports. Bradley will come off the bench Thursday after missing the Lakers' last four contests. The guard is averaging 6.6 points, 2.3 rebounds and 0.9 steals in 23.8 minutes of action on the season so far.

Bradley (knee) is questionable for Thursday's game against the Clippers, Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times reports. Knee swelling has prevented Bradley from playing since the All-Star break. He's played a significant role for the Lakers this season, seeing 23.8 minutes per game with averages of 6.6 points and 2.3 rebounds. His return could mean reduced minutes for Malik Monk, Talen Horton-Tucker and Austin Reaves.

Bradley (knee) won't play in Tuesday's game against the Mavericks. Bradley is set to miss his fourth straight matchup while tending to a right knee injury. His next opportunity to return will arrive Thursday against the Clippers.

Bradley (knee) has been ruled out for Sunday's contest against the Pelicans. Bradley is slated to miss his third straight contest due to a right knee effusion. The injury dates back to before the All-Star break, which raises concern that it may be a long term issue. Nonetheless, barring any further update, it appears the Lakers will continue to update Bradley's status on a game-by-game basis. Therefore, his next chance to suit up will come Tuesday against the Mavericks.

The Los Angeles Lakers enter the stretch run of the 2021-22 season needing a major turnaround to stay alive in the Western Conference playoff race. To begin that stretch, they’ll face their locker room rivals — the L.A. Clippers — in the first of two matchups over the next week.

As the Lakers emerge from a tumultuous All-Star break to play the Clippers on Friday, they will be missing a couple of key guards in their rotation. Avery Bradley, who has started 42 games for the purple and gold this season, missed the team’s last game before the break against the Golden State Warriors due to an injury that the team listed as right knee effusion. It sounds like the 10-day All-Star layoff was not quite enough time to allow the 31-year-old to completely recover from that ailment.

View the original article to see embedded media. It's time for the Lakers to decide the team that they want to be. They'll kick off their first game since the All-Star break against the Clippers at home. With a 27-31 record, Los Angeles is going to need to do everything that they can to stay in the playoff hunt.