Just one year after signing him to a five-year, $70 million contract extension, the Phoenix Suns are "seriously exploring" trading Eric Bledsoe, according to ESPN's Marc Stein.
Suns will try to trade Eric Bledsoe this summer, according to report
If Phoenix locks Brandon Knight into a long-term deal, expect to see the team try to move its other former Kentucky point guard.
The 25-year-old Bledsoe is coming off a season in which he led the team in points (17.0), assists (6.1), steals (1.6), PER (18.5) and win shares. But the Suns are interested in bringing back restricted free agent Brandon Knight, who they traded for in February, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Knight is expected to sign the same five-year, $70 million deal that Bledsoe signed, according to Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal-Times. That could be seen as a sign that Phoenix believes in Knight more.
After witnessing its three-point guard strategy derail its season last year, the belief is that Phoenix is no longer interested in paying both Bledsoe and Knight.
Why trading Bledsoe makes sense
The Suns were reluctant to pay Bledsoe even last summer. The two sides went back and forth for months before finally coming to terms on that five year, $70 million deal in late September. Phoenix’s original offer to Bledsoe was reportedly four years for $48 million. Bledsoe reportedly wanted something in the five year, $80 million range. Bledsoe appeared to win the standoff.
The Suns did reportedly shop Bledsoe a bit last offseason -- the Lakers were the team most frequently named as one possibly being interested in a sign-and-trade -- but nothing came to fruition. Phoenix must believe that Bledsoe could fetch a great return from teams around the league due to his production and long-term contract locked in before spikes in the cap. It's not everyday that a lockdown perimeter defender that can also score and create points in the paint becomes available.
Last season the Suns outscored opponents by 1.5 points per 100 possessions when Bledsoe played and where outscored by 5.2 when he sat, according to NBA.com. If the team is truly invested in Brandon Knight and thinks that a backcourt consisting of him and first round pick Devin Booker is the one they want to build around, then trading Bledsoe is the right move.
The Suns aren’t doing this because they don’t like Bledsoe. They’d do it to see if Bledsoe can fetch a return that’ll make the team better. Dave King detailed the situation at our Suns community Bright Side of the Suns on Monday:
Of course, the Suns will explore Bledsoe trade options. But they’d only pull the trigger for a win-now deal with a player coming back who is at least as good as Bledsoe that plays another position on the court.
Why trading Bledsoe doesn’t make sense
For all the reasons mentioned above. He’s their best player and he’s on a team-friendly deal. Lockdown perimeter defenders are extremely hard to find these days. Ones who can also help your team on offense are even harder.
It’s not clear why the Suns would choose to go with Knight over Bledsoe. The obvious answer is that letting Knight walk wouldn’t deliver any assets to the team, whereas trading the already-signed Bledsoe would. But do the Suns really want to build around a point guard who has yet to prove that he can be the starting man on a winning team? Yes, Knight is just 23 and he is coming off his best season in the NBA (17 points, 5.2 assists, 39 percent three-point shooting). But he still has trouble defending and setting up an offense. Bledsoe, on the other hand, is a proven commodity.
Likelihood (7/10)
Based on what happened last offseason, we know that the Suns were never fully invested in Bledsoe as their future. Also, trading him marks the best path towards rebuilding. After last season’s disaster, we know they don’t want multiple high-priced point guards on the roster. We also know that after giving up that Lakers’ first round pick to acquire Knight shows they’re not going to let him go.
A group of Brandon Knight, center Alex Len, Markieff Morris and Devin Booker, plus whatever pieces the Suns get for Bledsoe is a good one to build around. At this point, putting Bledsoe on the market makes too much sense.
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