Avery Bradley

SG, Los Angeles Lakers

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Avery Bradley, who had made headlines recently for his efforts to highlight the importance of the social justice movements, has decided to opt out of the remainder of the NBA season on Tuesday evening, which is scheduled to get underway next month at Disney World in Orlando.

This is notable for many reasons, both on and off the court. For the Lakers, Bradley's employer, this is a significant blow. They have much of their cap space allotted to a few players and the roster depth they were able to scrap together at the end of last offseason is particularly important to their success. The Lakers are slim at most positions and this will put even more responsibility in the hands of players like Danny Green and Alex Caruso when the league resumes. Off the court, Bradley was at the forefront of reports last week that numerous NBA players, including high-profile players like Kyrie Irving and fellow Laker Dwight Howard, were wary of returning to the basketball court amid the police brutality and Black Lives Matter movements/protests currently taking place in the United States. The deadline for players to decide about the Orlando plan is Wednesday, and Bradley joins the likes of Davis Bertans and Trevor Ariza in opting to stay home when the league finally resumes play. Teams are allowed "replacement players" in the event that their current players opt out, so it should be interesting to see where the Lakers choose to go with their roster in the wake of Bradley's big choice.

Source: ESPN