Eric Bledsoe wants to get in-your-face, bathing-in-hundy-sticks, set-greenbacks-on-fire, look-mom-I’ve-made-it, just-like-James-Harden paid from the Phoenix Suns.
But that’s not going to happen.
Per ESPN.com’s Chris Broussard, Bledsoe, a restricted free agent, is seeking a five-year, $80 million contract from the Suns:
The future of one of the most talented free agents left on the market remains cloudy, as Eric Bledsoe and the Phoenix Suns remain far apart in contract talks, according to sources close to the situation.
A restricted free agent, Bledsoe averaged 17.7 points, 5.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds last season.
The thought that the Suns will match any offer Bledsoe receives from a competing club has deterred teams from aggressively pursuing the 24-year-old point guard. Phoenix has thus far refused to discuss potential sign-and-trade opportunities.
But the Suns’ completion of a sign-and-trade deal for Isaiah Thomas, along with the drafting of point guard Tyler Ennis, has potential suitors believing that Phoenix may move on from Bledsoe, league sources said.
The Milwaukee Bucks have been mentioned as a team with interest in Bledsoe, and Sacramento and Houston, which recently traded away Jeremy Lin, could be in the market for a point guard.
Eighty million bills is a lot of cash. It’s an enormous payday that’s supposed to be reserved for superstars. Is Bledsoe a superstar? He certainly put up gaudy numbers when he was healthy last season, but he missed 39 games in 2013-14. The Suns might need to see more than 43 contests worth of awesomeness from him before they’re willing to commit that much.
They also have the option of signing and trading him. The acquisition of Isaiah Thomas doesn’t make Bledsoe expendable, but if he prices himself out of the Suns’ range, moving him is an avenue they can explore.
Only Bledsoe isn’t going to price himself out of the Suns’ range. If he really wanted to force Phoenix’s hand, he should have found a lucrative offer sheet elsewhere before now, instead of waiting for the market, and therefore cash, to dry up.
That he didn’t sign one suggests he didn’t want to, or that he couldn’t find one to his liking. The Suns are the only team who can offer him that fifth year, after all. Yet even in terms of the four-year max, there isn’t a team out there with that kind of coin.
Sacramento, Houston and Milwaukee are all interesting landing spots—especially the latter with Jason Kidd in the fold now—but the Kings, Rockets and Bucks don’t have the cap space to offer a max deal. Really, there is only the Sixers, and they aren’t offering Bledsoe anything, because 1) they’re tanking and 2) they already have Michael Carter-Williams.
General manager Ryan McDonough and crew will inevitably move up from their four-year, $48 million—unless the Suns actually don’t want Bledsoe—since that’s basically the same deal Kyle Lowry received from the Raptors. But it’s them who own all the leverage in this situation.
Bledsoe’s options are not only slim, the Suns have a backup plan in Thomas and a fringe star in Goran Dragic who cheapen the value of Mini LeBron. We all know how this is going to end already:
With Bledsoe taking a pay cut, resigning to only being obnoxiously paid, and not in-your-face, bathing-in-hundy-sticks, set-greenbacks-on-fire, look-mom-I’ve-made-it, just-like-James-Harden filthy rich.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
