On the verge of signing a qualifying offer that would have made him an unrestricted free agent next summer, Eric Bledsoe finally agreed to a 5-year, $70 million contract with the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday. Suns fans can now put to bed those fears of losing Bledsoe for nothing and rejoice at having their budding superstar locked up for the next five seasons. Right?
Not so fast.
Suns Playing With Fire With Eric Bledsoe Contract
Here’s the good news: Bledsoe is coming off of a season in which he set career-highs in nearly every major statistical category. He doubled his previous-best scoring output (averaging 17.7 points per game), shot nearly 48% from the floor, finished in the top ten in steals per game, and improved his rebound and assist averages from his previous career-bests.
But…..
After missing significant time in the 2011-12 season in Los Angeles with a meniscus tear in his right knee, Bledsoe injured it again last season, forcing him to miss nearly 40 games. His 2011 injury coincided with the arrival of Chris Paul, whose MVP-caliber play would relegate Bledsoe to a backup role and eventually prompt the Clippers to trade him to Phoenix prior to last season. Having missed time last year with his most recent knee issue, he’ll enter the 2014-15 campaign having never started more than 39 games in any of his four seasons in the league.
That might be reason enough for the armchair GM to give pause to ponying up $70 million for a young player with not one, but two knee surgeries who has yet to prove that he can be a solid starter for an entire NBA season (paging Mr. Oden). What’s worse? Bledsoe isn’t even be the best point guard on his own team.
The point guard who stepped up in his starting role and established himself as the leader on the floor in Phoenix last season wasn’t Bledsoe, but sixth-year point guard Goran Dragic, whose accolades from a season ago read like someone who…well, deserves $70 million over the next five years. Dragic won the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award, was a third team All-NBA selection, finished in the top-10 in both assists (8th) and offensive win shares (9th), AND was in the top-20 in the voting for the league’s Most Valuable Player award.
Granted, the Suns hands were tied to a certain extent, given the fact that Dragic can still opt out of the fourth year of his contract at the end of this season, which would have potentially made both him and Bledsoe unrestricted free agents heading into next summer. So what did Phoenix do to protect themselves against the prospect of losing both of their star point guards for nothing? They acquired Isaiah Thomas, yet another budding star at the point guard position whose numbers are strikingly similar to both Bledsoe and Dragic.
Which makes Phoenix’s willingness to commit the kind of money they did to Bledsoe all the more puzzling. Even if they did lose both Bledsoe and Dragic next summer, they’d still have a rock solid young point guard locked up through 2018 at under $7 million per year, meaning they could use their cap space to make a run at free agents at (gasp!) a position other than point guard! Instead, out of the three players at that position on the Suns’ roster, each of whom averaged in the neighborhood of 19 points and 6 assists per game last season, Phoenix chose to throw gobs of money at the one most likely to get injured before the contract is up.
It’s no doubt a relief to the fans and front office in Phoenix that the Eric Bledsoe contract situation was resolved when it was; the circus that would have surrounded the team and its soon-to-be free agent backcourt would undoubtedly have been a distraction. Whether or not that short term benefit helps them in the long run remains to be seen.
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