Tony Bradley discusses his approach to his battle for a roster spot
Tony Bradley spent much of his summer working on his jump shot as he pushes for a roster spot for the Pacers this season.
Tony Bradley is one of three players on non-guaranteed deals with two roster spots open: ‘I know what’s at stake’Bradley has been focusing on extending the range on his jump shot to complement his reboundingThe Pacers host their first preseason game Saturday vs. Oklahoma City at 7 p.m.
INDIANAPOLIS — Tony Bradley understands the situation he’s in. He knows how fleeting this is, knows how easily he could be out of the NBA by the end of the month and knows how little of his fate is in his control.
The 27-year-old veteran center joined the Pacers on a 10-day contract last March having not appeared in an NBA game in more than two years. He managed to turn that 10-day deal into another 10-day deal and then a contract that kept him in Indiana the rest of the season which turned out to last through Game 7 of the NBA Finals. There were times during his two years in the G League that he feared he’d never play in the NBA again, but instead he made 11 playoff appearances including four in the Eastern Conference Finals and three in the NBA Finals where he was enlisted to do battle with bench glass crashers Mitchell Robinson of the Knicks and Isaiah Hartenstein of the Thunder.
But as useful as he was during that stretch, Bradley is aware that the Pacers’ roster calculus is much different for 2025-26.
They team picked up his club option, but he’s on a non-guaranteed deal so he could be waived without penalty. They signed him last year because they had seen two backup centers — Isaiah Jackson and James Wiseman — tear Achilles tendons in the season’s first 10 days and traded Wiseman to clear space to add a third center behind starter Myles Turner and backup Thomas Bryant. This year, Turner and Bryant are gone to free agency, but Jackson and Wiseman re-signed and the Pacers added Jay Huff in a trade.
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The Pacers have four centers effectively battling for three rotation spots and they have 16 players on standard contracts battling for 15 positions. Bradley, Wiseman and recently acquired guard Delon Wright are the three players on non-guaranteed deals. Wiseman has the benefit of next-level size and being a former No. 2 overall pick. Wright gives them a third point guard behind Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell, which is probably a necessity with Tyrese Haliburton out for the season with his Achilles tendon tear.
The odds seem stacked against Bradley.
“I know what’s at stake,” Bradley said. “We’re all playing for a roster spot, the guys who are on non-guarantees.”
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle complimented Bradley for having a simple game, for doing exactly what he was asked to do and doing it hard. But Bradley realized heading into the offseason that he did have to try to add elements to his game to try to stick.
Most notably, Bradley put in work on his jump shot, something that’s never been a particular strong suit. In his one season at North Carolina when he helped the Tar Heels to the 2017 national title, he didn’t attempt a single 3-pointer. In 193 NBA games, he’s attempted just 15 3-pointers, hitting seven of them. In 85 G League games, he’s 11 of 43 from beyond the arc. In his NBA career, 55.6% of his field goal attempts have come from inside 3 feet and 91.2% have come inside 10 feet.
Last season, Bradley made 1 of 3 3-point attempts for the Pacers and one of his misses was particularly brutal. In the Pacers’ March 27 win over the Wizards in which they scored 162 points and made 27 3-pointers, Bradley missed a corner 3 that hit off the back side of the backboard and went out of bounds. The game was long-since decided by then, but in a game when the Pacers were that on target, that miss stood out.
So Bradley put a lot of time in the offseason into re-creating his shot and it’s been clear even in post-practice shootaround periods open to the media that there’s been a real impact.
“Really just emphasized staying low,” Bradley said. “Staying ready for the shot, my hand preparation. Then I changed my base a little bit. My old shot, my right foot wasn’t square. It looked kinda awkward.”
Bradley said he considered everything from the position he was in to catch passes to his footwork when he pulled up. That’s led to better numbers in shooting drills and Bradley has also improved what he can do in 5-on-5 scrimmages. That gives Bradley a more complete skill set, and the Pacers already like what he has.
“I talked to him last year about spending some time working on the 3-point shot,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “He’s making them in a pretty consistent basis now. … It adds an important element. … His feel defensively and rebounding is very, very good.”
Despite all that, Bradley could find himself on the wrong end of a numbers game. However, he has the remaining preseason games to make his case to the Pacers and anyone else who might be interested in adding frontcourt depth if he’s released. Now that he’s back in the NBA, he’s not ready to leave.
“I stayed motivated ever since I went down to the G League and came up,” Bradley said. “My whole mindset is just different, how I see everything. I’m very motivated, always.”
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