Eric Bledsoe agrees to 5-year, $70 million deal with Suns

The two sides opened free agency very far apart and hardly talking at all. Suns owner Robert Sarver went on local radio in early August and said the team hadn’t spoken to Bledsoe since the restricted free agent left the team in April, but just a week before the team was to begin training camp, negotiations kicked up, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski.

In mid-September, it looked like Bledsoe was headed for a qualifying offer that would pay him $3.7 million this coming year before making him an unrestricted free agent next summer -- a risky move for a relatively unproven player who has dealt with knee injuries in his young career.

Bledsoe tried and failed to find a team to offer him a max deal, which would pay out significantly more than the Suns’ offer. All sign-and-trade efforts have also failed to pique the Suns’ interest. While it would appear that an incentive-laden contract would be the right path here, Phoenix has all of the power and little incentive to cave.

The Suns’ training camp opens on September 30.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated as new information becomes available.

Minnesota is over the salary cap, so it must send back enough salary to match NBA trade rules to acquire Bledsoe. The Timberwolves only want to dump bad contracts on Phoenix, according to Wojnarowski, and the Suns aren’t interested.