The education of Avery Bradley

The more I read about Avery Bradley's recovery, the more I get excited. Jessica Camerato of CSNNE.com hits it out of the park again with her in-depth look at how AB is taking a cerebral approach as he attempts to come back from double shoulder surgery. Her piece goes hand-in-hand with an earlier look into his rehab and if you didn't love Avery before, you need to check out both articles. Here's a snippet from Camerato's:

Unable to do many physical activities with his upper body, Bradley focused on the mental approach to the game. He studied film -- a lot of game film -- after watching Rondo do the same over the years. Soon he began seeing the court differently, comparing the realization to solving a Magic Eye puzzle. By shifting the way he watched the action, he opened his eyes to a completely different point of view.

"There were some of those things (head coach) Doc (Rivers) would yell at us about," Bradley said. "[He would] look at us like, 'Are you serious? You don't see that? You don't see what I see?' We'd be like, 'No, we don't.'

"Now I see those things and I look at people that way, like, 'Why aren't you doing things that way?' I look at the game completely different, it's weird. It's like once you know the plays and you feel comfortable, you know all the other teams' sets, it's like you know everything and it's just easier. I know Paul (Pierce) and them can say the same thing, too."

You know in the Batman movies where Bruce Wayne spends time away from Gotham and physically and mentally trains to be a ninja? He's doing sit ups and chin ups in some prison somewhere and going all zen about his life's mission. That's Avery Bradley right now and he's only weeks away from seeing the parquet again.

AB goes on to talk about how he wants to be a "stronger ball handler" and how he's patterning his on-court and off-court game after Rondo. He's been watching a lot of film and it's been kind of cool seeing him on the sidelines pointing things out to Leandro Barbosa and Jason Terry. The belated birthday boy is only 22, but has been in Boston for three seasons and it's great to see him mentoring the vets on how to play Celtic basketball.

He's starting to ramp up his basketball activities and you can see him on the court before games, getting up shots and working on his conditioning. The team hasn't given a timetable on his return, but I'm betting that he's getting close. Remember: when Perk was recovering from his knee surgery, there wasn't a lot of warning from the coaching or medical staff before his first game back. The team has a very manageable schedule going into December with a Wednesday-Friday-Saturday pattern for the next three weeks, so the C's will probably get a lot of practice time before going out west after Christmas. I wouldn't be surprised if Avery Bradley returns before that road trip, if not sooner.