Can Eric Bledsoe Become A Leader For The Phoenix Suns?

The Criticisms Of Bledsoe

That leaves us with Bledsoe, a two-way force capable of going toe-to-toe with Russell Westbrook when he’s fully engaged.

In addition to being the most athletic player on the team, Bledsoe is also a bullish defender when locked in. His critics will cite his high turnover rate, his middling three-point percentage and the frequent instances where it simply looked like he wasn’t fully engaged.

The turnover issue is something he’ll need to work correct, particularly by cutting down on the number of jumps passes he throws on a nightly basis. And true enough, Bledsoe’s 32.4 percent shooting from beyond the arc last year didn’t inspire much fear in defenses, allowing them to give him space and cut off his penetration ahead of time.

But it’s also worth noting that the Suns had quite a turbulent season where rotations were never set in stone. With all that instability and the loss of pick-and-pop presence Channing Frye, can we really say Bledsoe is that bad of a perimeter shooter? It was only a year ago he converted 35.7 percent of his three-point attempts, after all.

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Furthermore, for all three of these criticisms, shouldn’t Bledsoe be given a little benefit of the doubt being that it was his first full season as a starter in this league? The season prior, he only played 43 games due to a knee injury and during his time with the Los Angeles Clippers, he was always coming off the bench.

Bledsoe played a career high 34.6 minutes per game last season and missed only one game of an 82-game grind. No wonder there were some nights when he looked out of it! That kind of two-way energy, especially when facing up against the deepest and most talented position in the NBA, is hard to sustain on a nightly basis.

No one should make excuses for Bledsoe; it’s his job as a professional to bring it every night. But for a player who logged nearly 1,000 more minutes last year than he had in any prior season, it makes sense that his energy levels dipped from time to time. The key now is to adjust to that physical grind and improve on bringing more consistent effort.

Nobody’s expecting Bledsoe to play like he’s dueling Westbrook every night, but we should bear in mind that coming off his first full season as a starter, this 25-year-old still has plenty of room for growth as the team’s star point guard.

Next: Bledsoe's Big Summer