The Celtics are bringing Avery Bradley along slowly and he might miss so much time that he is forced to the D-League to get minutes.

"I could be back tomorrow the way I'm going, but I'll take it day by day and see how my ankle feels each morning," the first-round pick, who had ankle surgery in July, said Wednesday.

"It feels good. I never had an injury before. I thought it would take three weeks, but I haven't played in so long. But my trainer and teammates tell me not to come back and hurt myself."

"When I talk to him he's doing OK, in passing," Doc Rivers said. "I haven't seen him on the floor. But we don't want to rush him. This is his first year, it's a foot injury, he's going to have a healthy career, but I think we're handling this the right way. We're not going to push him at all. We're actually holding him back a bit.

"I don't want him to get off to a slow start with your confidence and everything. I want him to be 100 percent before he gets on the floor. It's important that he gets healthy. I would love him to play. Him missing what he's missed already has set him back a ways, but putting him back on the floor would hurt him more mentally at this point."