THE J0KER wrote:The Rebel wrote:NuggetsWY wrote:I'm not totally opposed to Bledsoe but he's a 6'1" player that needs the ball in his hands and in my opinion is over-rated on defense. Not saying he is a bad defensive player, but at 6'1", even with his 6'8" wingspan, he just can't cover a lot of the larger players in today's NBA. He's quick enough but just not strong enough physically. He'd probably have to be a bench player and then you face the same problem as Barton - a lot of money coming off the bench without being a good fit on the Nuggets.
I think Bledsoe is one of the most overrated players I have ever seen. He puts up a lot of shots so people think he is some great player, when he is basically an average player.
Bledsoe defensive numbers put him on the same tier as Barton, and that is with Bledsoe having the DPOY behind him while Barton has Jokic. For all the hype of Bledsoe being a 2 way player he sucks on offense.
He was worse than Harris on offense in the playoffs, it was ugly. In fact Bledsoe's career TS% in the playoffs is 51.6% Harris in this year's playoffs put up 52.2%. For a guy who is supposedly a scorer, Bledsoe is a terrible scorer, and he is worse in the playoffs every year than Harris was this year.
But the uglier fact is that as much as people bitch about Harris's lack of shot, Bledsoe has a career average of 33.6% from 3, Harris last year shot 33.3%, so as bad as Harris was shooting last year, in Bledsoe's typical year he hits 1.5 more 3s per season than Harris did last year.
To top it all off Bledsoe is 30 years old and is not going to get better, undersized guards usually have pretty dramatic drop offs between 30-32 years old.
The biggest problem with Barton is that he is a bad fit for the Denver system. He makes Murray and Porter look worse, and not compatible with Jokic point-center game style. Also, like Plumlee, seems he tends to underperform under playoff pressure. That is partly a problem with Bledsoe too, but at least he adds some extra passes and points compared to Harris and Barton. Also, Bledsoe's salary is $17M, while Harris+Barton are $33M, which is an important argument in favor of this eventual trade. I didn't choose Bledsoe because he is perfect for Denver, but because he is obviously available, and this would be an improvement. The point of trades of "WIN NOW" teams should be an instant improvement, not some virtual value.
If Barton is a bad fit, what does that make Bledsoe? Barton shoots 39% on spot up 3 pointers, Bledsoe shoots 26%, Bledsoe cannot play off the ball, that is why Milwaukee traded him.
Playoffs under performing is partly a problem with Bledsoe? Bledsoe is worse in the playoffs every year than Harris was this year, and it is not even close.
As for adding points, he shoots more than either Harris or Barton but he does it on a significantly worse shooting percentage, that means he is taking shots out of other guys hands. Bledsoe was considerably worse than Craig on offense in the playoffs this year, would you argue that Craig shooting 20 times a game is a good thing?
Bledsoe has the ball 4.2 minutes of every game, that is more than anybody outside of Murray on the Nuggets, he also gets more touches every game than anybody on the Nuggets outside of Murray and Jokic. Of course he is going to put up a lot of counting stats, but that does not mean he is an effective player.
We have 2 starting quality players making $33 million, which is on the low end for starters around the league, and you want to trade them for a bench quality player making $17 million a year? Sorry that is a terrible excuse. I would not take Bledsoe on his contract for anybody on our roster that can make the salaries work. I would not take him for free into cap space, even if he came with a future Bucks 1st, he is not a good player and I cannot believe that a Nuggets fan would even think he is better than Barton or Harris.