Eric Bledsoe

[Revived]

Westbrook isn't good at long range shooting and his leadership skills are laughable.

[Maystack]

Rose is a pretty poor long range shooter as well is he not?

[nevetsov]

Rose is a pretty poor long range shooter as well is he not?

Pretty sure he's much better than Bledsoe's 20%. But he's also much better in every other category as far as I know.


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[gaspar]

Rose is a pretty poor long range shooter as well is he not?

Pretty sure he's much better than Bledsoe's 20%. But he's also much better in every other category as far as I know.

Sample size? Both Bledsoe and Rose are career 30% 3-point shooters.

[bwgood77]

It would seem that the biggest competition for Bledsoe may come from Orlando. They had interest previously in signing him. They could put together a $48/4 offer on the table that would really give PHX pause about what to do. That is a pretty rich deal, but ORL could absorb it without terribly affecting their own plans. They would be right on track with their own 111 plan. They would get a high pick, a good free agent and have plenty of trade fodder leftover to work with to get yet another top-flight trade asset.

We have to hope Orlando gets their pg of the future in the draft. If that happens, it will take a major potential Bledsoe bidder off the table. MIlwaukee might make a bid, but I don't think they have cap space for a max offer (think it would cap out at about $10MM/yr).

The other team that may scare me the most is the Lakers. They will have TONS of cap room and if they fail on getting LeBron and Melo (which is likely), they may go after Bledsoe. The only thing is Kobe may command TONS of money and they would need frontcourt players or to give another contract to Pau.

[thamadkant]

Magic will most likely offer Bledsoe a 45/4 contract if they don't draft Smart or Exum.

But if they draft one of those players I don't see then offering anything.

Lakers in the other hand may offer something similar... But geez the way Lakers are playing they may get a shot at Smart or Exum as well if not Wiggins lol... Not so funny actually.

[YFZblu]

But geez the way Lakers are playing they may get a shot at Smart or Exum as well if not Wiggins lol... Not so funny actually.

I'm not making the case that the Lakers are a great team, because they aren't; but the Lakers currently have the same record as the Miami Heat - It's not like they're 0-4...

[nevetsov]

We'd match anything that the lakers offered, because that will only make their 2015 pick better Starting to think that pick will be huge for us.


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[Revived]

Lakers are probably gonna sign Deng and Stephenson if and when they miss out on Melo and LeBron.

Maybe Bosh too since Miami will probably let him go.

Those 3, paired with Kobe stil makes the Lakers a playoff team.

[jcsunsfan]

Bledsoe is now 50% from the field for the year. If you can score 23 pts a game that efficiently you are going to get paid- a lot.

[Revived]

Can anyone with ESPN Insider please post this complete article about Bledsoe?

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/ ... n-magazine

[carey]

Lakers are probably gonna sign Deng and Stephenson if and when they miss out on Melo and LeBron.

Maybe Bosh too since Miami will probably let him go.

Those 3, paired with Kobe stil makes the Lakers a playoff team.

I know they have a ton of money to spend, but Kobe has said a number of times he isn't taking a pay cut and he already makes $30Mil. There's just no way they can sign Deng, Stephenson, Bosh AND Kobe.

[Revived]

Lakers are probably gonna sign Deng and Stephenson if and when they miss out on Melo and LeBron.

Maybe Bosh too since Miami will probably let him go.

Those 3, paired with Kobe stil makes the Lakers a playoff team.

I know they have a ton of money to spend, but Kobe has said a number of times he isn't taking a pay cut and he already makes $30Mil. There's just no way they can sign Deng, Stephenson, Bosh AND Kobe.

Kobe said he will take the most he can get. You think Kobe can get $30 million from any other team in the NBA?

I think the highest any team will offer for him will be matched by the Lakers. They should still have quite a lot of cap room after that.

[gaspar]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/nbastats/status/398136870309474304[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/nbastats/status/398140467877281792[/tweet]

[Revived]

His only FTAs yesterday came when they intentionally fouled him at the end of the 4th.

Refs weren't calling the hits on him despite him drawing fouls on a lot of the drives to rim.

[illastrate]

Clipper fan here.

Really happy to see Bled flourishing. However, I didn't realize he was jacking up that many 3's, still needs work on that. But the biggest difference I've notice is the game has slowed down for him. Learning from CP3 really helped because he's more in control now.

Afraid some team might throw a huge offer sheet to him if he keeps this up.

[gaspar]

Ryan McDonough: 'Very confident' Eric Bledsoe will be a Phoenix Sun long-term

[...] "I feel very confident that he's going to be a Sun long-term," he told Burns and Gambo Wednesday. "We negotiated with Eric and his agents. I think the contract situation was handled very professionally on both ends."

McDonough said he feels good about how Bledsoe's agents approached the contract talks and hopes they feel the same way about the team's front office.

But more than anything, the first-year general manager wants fans to know that the "restricted" in "restricted free agency" is a very important word.

"We can match any offer to Eric next summer," he said. "Another advantage would be we have an extra year to play with. Other teams who are making Eric an offer can offer him four years, we can offer him up to five if we chose to do so.

"So there's some inherent advantages that I just mentioned, also we can give higher percentage increases than another team could give Eric in a contract."

In all, the gist seems to be that if the Suns want to keep Bledsoe, chances are they'll be able to do so. And no, McDonough does not regret being unable to come to an agreement before the season.

"The way I generally feel about restricted free agency is if there is a deal that makes sense, that the team thinks makes good financial sense for them and the agent and player feel like it makes financial sense for them, then they reach a deal," he said. [...]

[Revived]

If we give Bledsoe the 5 year max, then we can only offer the 4 year max after that to any other player for the duration of Bledsoe's contract right?

[Purple Palace]

Can anyone with ESPN Insider please post this complete article about Bledsoe?

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/ ... n-magazine

Can Eric Bledsoe live up to his nickname, "Mini LeBron"?
This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's Nov. 11 College Basketball preview. Subscribe today!

LONG CONSIDERED one of the NBA's best backup point guards, Eric Bledsoe is now the guy in Phoenix, with the chance to finally prove he's worth that whole "Mini LeBron" moniker. But is the former Clipper up for the challenge? We asked a scout to break down the 6'1" guard's game, then had our Insiders and Bledsoe respond.

The scout
Bledsoe has world-class speed and athleticism, but he still plays out of control too often. 1 He needs to slow down, make positive plays and limit the poor shot selection. 2 He's not a natural playmaker, and he's almost as likely to get an assist as he is to throw it into the stands. 3 He has an impressive body, but with his height, he needs to develop an in-between game 4 and tighten his handle. He's too casual with his approach with the ball. 5 He dramatically improved his shooting last season, 6 and he's got tremendous defensive potential, but his effort on that side of the ball is inconsistent. 7 Overall, his score-first mentality and athleticism are better suited for a sixth-man role. He's not a traditional floor general. 8


1. Eric Bledsoe
That's true. I do get out of control sometimes, but I'm always just trying to make a play.

2. Kevin Arnovitz, ESPN Insider
For certain players, the margin between strength and weakness is very thin. Speed is such a critical element of his game, so it's difficult to ask him to slow down without compromising what makes him such a disruptive, catalyzing force at both ends of the floor.

3. Arnovitz
Look, nobody is going to confuse Eric Bledsoe with Andre Miller, but his court vision and judgment improved dramatically last season. His TO/36 minutes dropped by 11 percent last season, and he made smarter plays in transition.

4. Amin Elhassan, ESPN Insider and former NBA scout
He has incredible strength and a great body, but yes, he's small. It's important for him to develop floaters and runners, because it's tough for him to finish among the trees.

5. Kevin Pelton, ESPN Insider
He struggles here, definitely, but he's made strides in taking care of the ball. He's cut his turnover rate each year of his career -- from 26.3 percent his rookie year to 24.4 percent in 2011-12 to 17.9 percent last season.

6. Bledsoe
People might say it's a fluke [39.7 percent from three in '12-13; 20 percent in '11-12], but it's not. I didn't get to shoot much in LA. Now people will see how much I've improved.

7. Elhassan
When he wants to be, he's a first-team-all-defense type of player, but he definitely takes plays off.

8. Elhassan
I disagree. It's so hard to find "true" point guards like Steve Nash or CP3, so to build a successful rotation, you need to build around roles. If Bledsoe is my scorer, then I just need someone else to be the facilitator.

Follow The Mag on Twitter (@ESPNmag) and like us on Facebook.

[Revived]

McDonough added that of the 2010 draft class that Bledsoe is a member of, just a handful of players have agreed to contract extensions, and those were "maximum salary guys." As such, many others were in the same boat as the Suns, who were looking to come to terms with a player who had not yet proven to be a maximum contract player.

After all, while Bledsoe had flashed great potential, he had never put it all together and consistently played like a star.

"Any extensions less than the max can be a little bit tricky, but we knew that going into it and we're very confident that Eric's going to be a Sun for a long time."

http://arizonasports.com/41/1675151/HES-OURS

I don't think we have to worry about McDonough giving him the max.