On Friday, news broke that the Milwaukee Bucks signed Eric Bledsoe to a four-year, $70 million extension. Bledsoe was nearly an all-star this season, and has been electric on both ends for the best team in the NBA. As a point guard who can play off of the ball, he’s perfect next to Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Bucks win the summer in the winter with Eric Bledsoe’s $70 million contract extension
Milwaukee now has one less thing to worry about this summer, which is crucial as it tries to keep its elite team together.
Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
He situation also had the potential to be a massive problem for the Bucks this offseason. Milwaukee has a number of free agents — Khris Middleton, Malcolm Brogdon, Brook Lopez, Nikola Mirotic — and Bledsoe could very easily have been the one who got away. Locking him up early clarifies the summer just a bit, and could result in the Bucks keeping every key player from their East-leading team if the big men take discounts and Milwaukee leverages Brogdon’s restricted status to its advantage.
Bledsoe, you may remember, is a client of Klutch Sports, the Rich Paul-led agency tied to LeBron James. Klutch took heavy criticism for the handling of Anthony Davis’ announcement he wouldn’t sign an extension with the Pelicans, and subsequent trade request. Handling Bledsoe quietly and quickly without turning the screws on the franchise should be a nice reputational win for Klutch, if anyone notices that Klutch is involved here.
For Bledsoe, security is important after a career marked by two serious knee injuries. The Alabama native is 29 years old, and has been healthy since arriving in Milwaukee last season. We should also remember that his last contract negotiation — as a restricted free agent whose rights were controlled by the Suns — was extremely messy, and almost cost him training camp and preseason games. That, plus the winning situation he finds himself in with Milwaukee, could have impacted his drive to get this done now.
For Milwaukee, this deal shows the virtuous cycle created from on-court excellence. The Bucks are so good that they are able to draw good players on under-market deals, thus making them even better. This is how to explain DeMarcus Cousins’ mid-level exception deal with the Warriors: players are never willing to take a discount to play for bad teams, but can convince themselves to do it for great squads.
Is this really a discount?
We won’t know until we see free agency shake out in July. There is famously a whole lot of salary cap space out there, and several high-profile teams seeking to use it.
Point guard isn’t a huge need position around the league. Kyrie Irving and likely Kemba Walker will get max deals. D’Angelo Russell is probably the closest free-agent point guard to Bledsoe’s talent level (albeit much younger), but judging comparative market value there will be impossible because Russell is a restricted free agent with fewer years of service. That massively depresses Russell’s contract potential.
On the other hand, perhaps the way to think about Bledsoe’s deal is as a percentage of his own max. As a nine-year veteran, Bledsoe would have been eligible for up to about $140 million over four years. Instead, he took $70 million, about half of his max and about half of what Irving and Walker will pull. That’s a great value for the Bucks, and a pretty steep discount over what Bledsoe could have pushed Milwaukee to offer him, given the team has his Bird rights.
Consider this: the Grizzlies paid $153 million over five years for Mike Conley at a similar age and status. Memphis is paying Conley an average salary of more than $30 million for essentially the same level of player as Milwaukee will now pay an average salary of $18 million. That’s a huge market win for the Bucks.
As as noted above, it makes July 1 a whole lot easier.
One presumes that Bucks general manager Jon Horst will be focused on locking up Middleton quickly, as the first-time all-star has been a popular name in armchair free agent war gaming. Wings who can defend multiple positions and hit a high volume of threes have never been more popular, and Middleton is so perfect with Antetokounmpo that Milwaukee would be loathe to lose him.
Dealing with Bledsoe now avoids any messy perception issues on July 1. Now, Middleton might end up too expensive for the Bucks to justify given the coming huge contract for Antetokounmpo and other positional needs. But getting a discount on Bledsoe could help Milwaukee justify overpaying for Middleton to keep everyone named Giannis happy.
Lopez and Mirotic could also be top priorities depending on how the rest of the NBA season and playoffs shake out. Brogdon, Bledsoe’s nicely matched backcourt buddy, is worth keeping as well, but there’s no need to rush anything with him since he’s a restricted free agent. Sure, another team with space that strikes out on the big names could throw too much money at President Brogdon, but as long as the Bucks keep Middleton with Bledsoe and have a back-up plan to add a starting two-guard, it wouldn’t be the end of the world to see him go.
The worst case scenario going into a Middleton-focused summer — losing the entire starting backcourt to free agency — has already been avoided. The Bucks have won a lot this season. Notching a summer win now is even better.
