Nate Oats raves about Jaden Bradley’s greatest strengths

Alabama defeated their second team of the young season ranked No. 1 in the nation on Saturday, erasing a 15-point deficit to beat Houston 71-65. The Crimson Tide’s second-leading scorer in their most recent upset victory was true freshman guard Jaden Bradley, who finished the contest tying a career-high with 12 points. Bradley has been playing stellar off of the bench so far this season, and head coach Nate Oats spoke about what makes him special.

“When we recruited him he was a highly rated point guard because he’s a winner and he knows how to play,” Oats said. “He’s not the best shooter, he’s working hard on it, we’re encouraging him to keep shooting, he’s not the quickest guy, but he’s got enough quickness to get where he needs to get on the court.”

Bradley was a 4-star recruit out of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, ranked the No. 7 player in the state and the No. point guard in the 2022 class according to On3 Consensus. And he may not be the best shooter or the quickest, but has an attribute that you can’t coach that according to Oats makes him different, he’s just a winner.

“But he makes winning plays; defensively, offensively, he’s smart, got a high IQ, wants to get his teammates involved, you see him spraying it out, I mean we missed some open threes that he got us tonight too, but he’s a winner and he’s showed it,” Oates said.

Bradley has only nine career college games under his belt in his young career, but has scored in double figures in five of those games. He’s provided a great spark off of the bench for Crimson Tide, also adding three assists and three rebounds per game to his stat line.

“You see where he’s at, how’s it going, and I don’t think the big game affects him, I mean it might make him better to be honest with you if you look at what he’s done in some of the bigger games. So super happy for him, he’s a great kind, he just kind of plays with the minutes you give him and shoot when we need him to play 25 minutes he’s ready to play 25 minutes and he was great tonight,” Oats said.

It’s clear Bradley’s earned the respect and trust of the team fast, ranking fourth on the team in minutes and already playing in the crucial moments of multiple big games this season. His career has gotten off to a promising start, and hopefully he can continue to play big in the Crimson Tide’s next game on Tuesday against Memphis.