Should The Suns Trade Eric Bledsoe For A Draft Pick?

What Is Bledsoe’s Value?

The first step in breaking down a hypothetical trade is a simple one: examining Bledsoe’s current value and what his ceiling might be.

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Last season, Bledsoe was one of four players in the league to average at least 17 points, six assists and five rebounds, joining LeBron James, James Harden and Russell Westbrook, per Basketball-Reference. That’s some pretty elite company to be in, even if his numbers were a far cry from what the others put up in each category.

Bledsoe’s 2014-15 season came with plenty of ups and downs. On the plus side, he made it through every game of the regular season except for one (which he missed for the birth of his son). For a guy who had never played a full season logging starter’s minutes due to injury problems/playing behind Chris Paul, this was a significant step forward.

Bledsoe had never logged more than 1,841 minutes in a season before 2014-15, but this past year he was good for nearly 1,000 more minutes than his previous career high at exactly 2,800. With all that extra time on the floor, we got a look at what Eric Bledsoe, starting point guard looks like.

What’s especially reassuring is that he has so little mileage on his NBA odometer at age 25:

Bledsoe is a young 25 in basketball terms as well. He's played 8,074 minutes. Westbrook played 13,520 minutes in first 5 reg. seasons.
— Michael Dunlap (@DunlapSports) June 22, 2015

At times, he was downright spectacular. When Bledsoe was fully engaged, he was unstoppable attacking the basket and became a two-way terror by bullying the opponent’s best backcourt player on the other end.

One such memorable occasion saw Bledsoe (28 points, 13 rebounds, nine assists and four steals) match Westbrook (39-14-11-3) blow-for-blow in a crucial home win that kept Phoenix’s playoff hopes alive for a little while longer:

That kind of spectacle wasn’t the norm, and it’s a little disconcerting that it took a primetime matchup in a primetime game to coax that kind of effort out of Bledsoe, but those flashes of brilliance proved that when fully locked in, he’s capable of putting that athleticism and talent to great use.

Unfortunately for the Suns, despite Bledsoe being the team’s best player,Phoenix’s performance after the departures of Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas didn’t make a ton of people feel comfortable about his leadership qualities. The Suns went 10-18 after the trade deadline, their three-point shooting plummeted to the bottom of the league and simply put, the team rolled over and died.

Bledsoe can’t shoulder all of the blame, since locker room morale was low after one-third of the team was traded away. The Suns’ brutal schedule to close the season, not to mention injuries to Brandon Knight and Alex Len, played a significant part too. But Phoenix’s once high-powered offense turned into a messy slog through the marshes with Bledsoe in complete control, and his season-long flaws became harder to ignore.

Bledsoe has an assist to turnover ratio of 1.72:1 this season. That's...an area where improvement should be made.
— JJ (@Suns6thMan) April 1, 2015

Bledsoe finished with the fourth most turnovers in the NBA last season, often getting in trouble by driving down the lane at full speed, jumping to pass and zipping a cross-court pass across his body, either into the stands or the hands of a waiting defender. The physical toll of playing more minutes than he was used to explains why he wasn’t always engaged, but that won’t be an adequate excuse next season.

That being said, dismissing Bledsoe’s value simply because he’s not capable of being the best player on a championship team is faulty logic. At age 25, he hasn’t reached his peak yet and he’s already a borderline All-Star. True enough, the Suns need a franchise player to compete for a title in the future, and Eric Bledsoe is not that player.

But as a second or third option? This two-way bulldog has a lot to offer and shouldn’t be put on the trade block lightly.

Next: Restarting A Rebuild