Eric Bledsoe

Eric Bledsoe
PG, 6’1, 190lbs, 27 years old, 7 years of experience

Something of a forgotten man league-wide, Bledsoe just posted the best season of his career, and every other team in the league should have been rung and told about that at least a couple of times by now. Bledsoe is making small but measurable improvements in his own scoring (drawing far more fouls this season and upping his three-point volume, albeit on mediocre efficiency) and in making plays for team-mates out of pick-and-roll action. Most importantly, for both his trade value and his use as a Sun going forward, he stayed healthy.

Player Plan: Two years and a combined $29.5 million salary remaining. The pairing with Booker seems to work well, and he seems to not have suffered too much (offensively at least) from continued knee injuries, so keep in the short term with an eye to a value consolidation trade.

Pick 18: A caption lists the last few first round picks in the history of the Oklahoma City Thunder. The list reads; James Harden, Rodrigue Beaubois (traded for B.J. Mullens), Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka, Kevin Durant, Saer Sene, Johan Petro. With the exception of Mullens, who doesn't even figure to be as good as Petro, you can see where Sam Presti took over.

The next addition to that list is Eric Bledsoe, giving Oklahoma City two backup point guards called Eric. It seems like at least one too many.

Jay Bilas inevitably mentions Bledsoe's wingspan, and calls him "shifty". He raves about his finishing ability and defense, and tries to downplay Bledsoe's average jumpshot. (Last year, Bledsoe managed to prove that it's possible to shoot 37% from three point range without being a good shooter). But while Jay is concerned about Bledsoe's point guard skill - and mercifully, the caption agrees with him - no one mentions that Bledsoe had more turnovers than assists last season. He didn't play much point guard with the presence of Wall, who played almost all game every game, but in the NBA, Bledsoe going to have to play point guard whether he likes it or not. And he won't.

Bledsoe doesn't appear to be here, so the cameraman spends the airtime that would have been used on him on Kevin Durant instead. Durant downplays the affair by clearly spending much of that time texting, but behind him, John Calipari is literally throwing himself over a chair to get more air time. Depressingly, I am not making this up.

[...]

Ric Bucher announces that Eric Bledsoe's draft rights are being traded to the L.A. Clippers for a future first round draft pick. Now that Oklahoma City has managed to get a future top 5 pick for Bledsoe, the pick makes sense.