NBA Free Agency: Sixers, Celtics Target Avery Bradley

NBA Free Agency started at midnight eastern last night, and the biggest move was Cleveland locking up Kyrie Irving to a max deal. When the draft night Sixers-Cavs deals were being discussed, we did hear a little something about Kyrie coming to Philly, but as we know, that never came close to coming to pass. Horseshit affects us all. But with the draft behind us and as we're now a few hours into free agency, it's time to shovel some more into our mouths, because Sam Hinkie's got plenty of cap space and he knows how to use it on people other than Danny Granger.

Celtics free agent guard Avery Bradley has received calls from Boston and Philadelphia since free agency arrived, a source told Yahoo.

— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) July 1, 2014

Interesting. I've long been an Avery Bradley fan because of his hounding defense and incredible speed, thinking of him as a more in control, lower usage Jerryd Bayless -- almost the highest compliment I could give a person. He's developed a very reliable jumper, shooting 39.5% from deep on 3.3 attempts per game last season. Dude doesn't get to the foul line much, but he's only 23 and has improved in a number of areas (especially turnover percentage) with each season. I think there's more potential to untap.

He's certainly better than most of the guard options the Sixers have on their roster, but I'm not sure he's better enough to spend the kind of money it'll cost to get him, at least for this particular team. He would be a fun compliment to Michael Carter-Williams, though, and seeing as the Sixers have the money to spend, maybe using an MLE-esque deal on Bradley isn't the worst thing.

For reference, here is my free agency preview from last year. It still applies today. Also worth a look is Tom Ziller's Top 75 Free Agents list, wherein he ranked Bradley 19th. Incidentally, a grand total of zero Sixers made the list.

We'll check back with more NBA Free Agency rumors as they come 'round.