Eric Bledsoe gaining better understanding of position

[mkwest]

And it's all very early for rookie guard Eric Bledsoe. He admitted to a certain level of frustration in handling the point guard position in the opening days of camp, but showed progress in a scrimmage Sunday. All things considered, it was a great leap forward from his summer league showing in Las Vegas.

"You see he's calmed down a little more," teammate Ryan Gomes said Monday before the Clippers departed for Portland. "With the help of coach [Howard] Eisley and coach [Robert] Pack, he has gotten to know his angles and to know when to turn on the speed.

"Early, in summer league, [Bledsoe] was using the same speed the whole game. You've got to know, at this level, it's two different speeds you have to play with in order to get your guy off balance. If you're running 90 miles per hour and somebody might step in your way — and you're not going to have an outlet. You might turn it over. So I saw that yesterday. He did a great job."

Said Bledsoe: "It's a lot of speeds. You've just got to try to change gears, like a car."

Bledsoe joked about having three coaches — Pack; Eisley, who is a player development assistant; and veteran point guard Baron Davis, who, incidentally, finally was able to practice Monday.

"Some of the stuff they see, I don't see," Bledsoe said. "They tell me and I make the adjustment."

Lisa Dillman, LA Times

[RiversideClips]

I don't see the big deal w/ Bledsoe, people tell me I am wrong. The main thing I did like about Summer League is that he made silly Rookie mistakes but, continued w/ the game plan. He never seemed to get out of his mondset, even though he was frustrated.
I hope that people are right and Bledsoe is Special, he seems to have a great head on his shoulders and lets hope he will improve w/ experience. lets hope he is good enough to give Baron some quality sit down minutes w/out loosing too much tempo.

[DunknDave]

The reports about Bledsoe from the last few days have been very encouraging. The guy has all of the physical qualities to be an outstanding pg. We all must remember he is learning a new position, so we will have to be patient. He really has to learn the mental aspects of the position, so coaching will be key to his development. Having both Howard Eisley, who played for Jerry Sloan, and Robert Pack, who worked with both Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton in NO, will prove to be very beneficial. Too early to tell at this point how good he'll be, but the talent is there, and he seems to be a willing learner and is very coachable.

[Det the Threat]

It's really tough to play the pg position in this league and it's even tougher to learn it while making the jump from college to the pros.

I really hope he learns fast, but having said that, it was a very wise decision by management to sign Randy Foye as well, as he can fill in at back pg some, as long as Bledsoe's still learning the position.

[thanumba2clippersfan]

I just hope that Bledsoe can cut down on the turn overs, maybe he'll have a better showing against the Kings