Efficient, effective Jaden Bradley fine providing a spark coming off the bench

If it isn’t qualitatively clear enough how much Jaden Bradley is impacting the Arizona Wildcats this season, there’s also the deep dives that PhD statistician Evan Miyakawa makes into college basketball.

His quantitative ratings say Bradley is the 15th-most efficient men’s basketball player in the country on both ends of the court, at least on a per-possession basis. With a combination of what’s known as offensive and defensive Baynesian Performance Ratings, Miyakawa rates Bradley first among the Wildcats.

Miyakawa also noted that Bradley has Arizona’s third-best plus-minus rating (the number of how many points UA scores with him on the floor, minus those given up while he’s on the floor.) In that metric, Bradley is at 247, behind only Pelle Larsson (307) and Caleb Love (290).

In one sense, none of this is a surprise. Bradley has lived a life on basketball’s elite fast track, having spent his final two years of high school at Florida’s IMG Academy, making the prestigious McDonald’s All-American Game as a senior in 2021-22 and starting as a freshman at Alabama for most of last season.

He can play. The surprise is that Bradley is doing it all off the bench, averaging 5.5 points in only 19.9 minutes on average. He is, actually, the only non-starter among the Top 50 players in Miyakawa’s combined offensive and defensive per-possession ratings.

And, in what may be even more of a surprise, Bradley appears to be OK with coming off the bench, either backing up starting point guard Kylan Boswell or playing alongside him on the wing.

In fact, Bradley has even said he loves it at Arizona.

“It’s just the developmental piece,” Bradley said. “It’s not often you have a program like this where the head coach is really active on the court and helping us out. I feel like all the coaches really want us to excel and want us to get better. That’s just a lot and we love that.”

But… what about those around him? Family, friends, advisors, others who have watched Bradley rise through basketball and maybe expected more minutes or shots by now?

Especially after Bradley transferred after last season? (Before Arizona faced Alabama in December, Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said Bradley had expected late-season starter Jahvon Quinerly to return and that Bradley “wanted a bigger role.”)

Do those folks whisper anything?

If they do, the way Bradley explains things, it doesn’t matter. He said his parents, brothers and friends alike all have his back and, for whoever else might be chatting, he isn’t listening.

“People are talking outside, but I just try to focus on what the team needs and what the game plan is that day,” Bradley said. “And our team is not a selfish team. We have an offense where everybody touches the ball at least twice, so everybody has the same opportunity.”

Basically, with Bradley and freshman guard KJ Lewis playing sixth- and seventh-man roles, the Wildcats have seven starting-worthy players. Their production helps put Arizona behind only Auburn in having the best seven-player rotation in the country, according to Miyakawa’s ranking.

It’s a tightly wound rotation that UA coach Tommy Lloyd has stuck with all season long, going with the same five starters, and same three guys off the bench (backup center Motiejus Krivas is effectively the eighth player) with only minor variations in playing time as fouls and matchups dictate.

If there’s an ego-management side to it, either with players or those around them, Lloyd wasn’t interested in going there.

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“I’m not doing that,” he said. “Jaden Bradley is a great, high-character kid, whose number one focus is on helping his team win.

“Could he have a bigger role? Maybe. Is he thriving in the role he’s in? Yes. And that’s very important for us and for any program to be good. So I’m thankful we have him. I really value him. And I think he’s gonna have a great impact on Arizona basketball over the course of his career.”

“He’s a high-character, team-first, amazing person. Enough said.”

The thing is, the easiest measurements in basketball production are on the offensive side. But, noting that he picked up toughness and physicality from playing multiple positions in football as a middle-schooler, Bradley has also been arguably the Wildcats’ top defender.

While that’s a measurement that is often hard to quantify, Miyakawa has found a way.

Miyakawa said when Bradley is on the floor, Arizona has given up under 80 points per 100 possessions (79.4) after adjusting retroactively for opponent quality. That’s not far below the average for the No. 1 defense in the country, Houston, which gives up 78.1 points in Miyakawa’s adjusted measurement.

But when Bradley is off the floor, Arizona is giving up 95.5 points per 100 possessions, a level Miyakawa says would equate to being about the 75th-best defense in the country.

“His impact on team defensive performance has been mind-bogglingly good,” Miyakawa says of Bradley.

Bradley’s impact was no more visible than last week, when the Wildcats swept through Utah and Colorado. Helping keep UA’s starters in a three-overtime marathon at Utah by playing 28 minutes, Bradley chipped in nine points, hitting 5 of 6 free throws, while dishing two assists and grabbing two rebounds.

Two nights later at Colorado, Bradley had a season-high 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting while recording three steals.

“Jaden played his best game at Arizona today,” Lloyd said after the CU game. “He was awesome.”

That’s the sort of feedback Bradley is listening to. He said he isn’t focused on what scouts or advisors are making of his production, even if his per-possession numbers project better things ahead.

“I try not to focus on that kind of stuff,” he said. “I feel like you just put your attention on what coach is talking about and what you can do on the court right now. That’s going to help in the long run. Not worrying about that stuff kind of relieves some pressure.”

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Photos: No. 8 Arizona Wildcats blow out Colorado Buffaloes in Boulder, 99-79

Photos: No. 8 Arizona men's basketball team defeats Utah 105-99 in triple overtime