I stand corrected. He did start. But he did play off the ball in a secondary role to Wall. And he is pretty good. But in this league with the plethora of talent at the point guard position he isn't good enough to warrant a max contract and give up a lottery pick for. Just to further illustrate my point, he was 8th among point guards in PER at 19.6 and this was considered to be his break out season. Oh...and point guards 9,10,11, and 12? Their respective PERs were 19.5, 19.0, 18.9, and 18.7. That doesn't include Patrick Mills, a non-starter who had a PER of 18.7, just a tenth above Damian Lillard at 18.6, but didn't start and just signed a contract paying him around $4 million per season. Not to mention non-max contract point guards like Steph Curry and Mike Conley and Goran Dragic (who wasn't even included as a PG but would have pushed Bledsoe down to #9 on the PG list if he had been) who had better PERs and are making between $7.5 million and $11 million per season. And none of that accounts for an injured Derrick Rose who did not play nor a recovering Rajon Rondo who played on a lottery team. The point guard talent pool is too great to be paying Bledsoe the max. He hasn't shown that he is a part of the upper-upper tier of point guards like CP3 or Russell Westbrook to earn that contract. He really hasn't even shown he's a better player than Steph Curry, Goran Dragic, or Mike Conley.
I would be shocked if the rockets still own that Pelicans pick after the trade deadline with Howard and Harden now in their prime.
Yeah, they could trade it. I just hope when they unload the pick that it is for an established superstar....like Kevin Love....or LaMarcus Aldridge. Somebody that has already proven they are big time players while making big time money.
First off, you can't compare PER between players who play different amounts of time. Secondly, every one of those you named are older than Bledsoe and not only have more experience, but more PT. Bledsoe is 24. Curry is 26, Dragic is 28. You said yourself his PER was higher than Lillards who will probably be a max player after next season. Steph got the most he could have gotten (a max contract) for his age several years ago. How many PGs in the league averaged 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals per game? Hell, how many players did that? He deserves a max deal. In 2 or 3 years when he gets his 3pt % close to 40, he will be a top 5 PG in this league.
I mean if they do that new lottery where they "semi-randomly" pick all the way to 6 instead of just the top 3. that might give us a slightly better pick
We don't have an awful lot to offer, but we do have: 1) Pellie Pick 2) T Jones 3) Beverly 4) Canaan 5) Nick Johnson 6) DMo Not a fantastic list, but for a player like Gogi (essentially an expiring contract from a team whose strength is PG), you can put together a nice package. Unfortunately, 3 of our nicer assets don't fill any of their weaker positions.
I didn't bring up PER. Somebody else did comparing Bledsoe to Parsons. I simply stated that when you compare STARTING PGs in this league, Bledsoe's PER is not even top 5. It's really #9. But Lillard has been injury free. And Lillard is either the best or second-best player on a playoff team. And age??? You going to pay for future potential???? That's not how smart money works. That's called gambling. I have no idea. But what I'd like to know is how many point guards had an assist/turnover ratio greater than 1.64? And how many PGs had a WORSE TO% than 17. The Rockets led the league in turnovers. And Bledsoe has a worse TO% than Harden and Howard. He may indeed DESERVE a max deal. But the market isn't bearing that out right now. And even if he DESERVES a max deal...I don't want to put all our assets into one basket and hope and pray that he'll be healthy and continue to get better. I'd rather keep the pick and have the flexibility to make other moves. It's simply a question of value here. How much value can we get? If we can acquire Goran and not have to give up the Pelies pick...that's the trade to make. Goran's cap hold next summer will be around $11.5 million...less than what Bledsoe would make on a max deal. That gives us flexibility for summer of 2015 and really a better fit player for our team this season in Goran over Bledsoe.
Dragic is a pipe dream. There are plenty of teams which'd offer a lot more to get him than Beverly and what else. Same for Bledsoe. Suns will match any offer and trade him later.
I think dragic is very available. You would think not, but the Suns have gotten Ennis and Thomas in the offseason. And Dragic will be making big money starting next year. Phoenix likely would love to trade him for some better assets to upgrade elsewhere.
I don't agree with Basketballholic much, but I agree here. Pellies have a few injury prone and inconsistent players. Anything can happen with that squad this year. I'd prefer to keep that pick.
Bledsoe yes, but are you sure about Dragic? Teams that could us a PG upgrade: Mavericks Rockets Hawks Pacers Bucks Pistons Heat Kings Rockets Knicks Nets Remove teams for which Dragic likely wouldn't re-sign (they wouldn't offer much in a trade) and teams that simply have no assets, and you really don't have a large market, maybe 3 teams.
The Market for Dragic would be huge. 1) He doesn't have to play the PG. People really struggle with this. He may be labeled a PG, but he was actually playing the 2 mostly for the Suns last year and he thrived in that role. He is brilliant without the ball and he is brilliant with the ball. 2) The idea that he likely wouldn't re-sign with a non-contender is probably bogus as well. He signed with PHX and allegedly loves it there. I'm sure he'd sign wherever he felt wanted and got paid.
So, let's boil it down. And simplify. Phoenix's starting point guard, Eric Bledsoe, had a PER of 19.6, eighth among starting point guards. Damian Lillard's PER was 18.6. The up-and-coming, tore-our-heart-out (and mugged for the camera in front of thousands of delirious Blazers fans while doing so) point guard for the Portland Trailblazers had a worse PER than Eric Bledsoe. Our starting point guard, Patrick Beverly, had a PER of 12.43. I don't even want to see where that ranks. But PER...how much is it affected by who you're playing alongside? Beverly's style is perfect alongside Harden; Beverly isn't a high-assists guy, and he plays defense. But. Would Beverly's PER be higher if he didn't play alongside someone who likes to masturbate the basketball on the court? Ditto Bledsoe, who played alongside a nominal SG who, in almost any other circumstance, would be a PG? I like Beverly, but if we could move up in weight class (despite the price tag), you gotta consider it. Especially since we obviously can't rely on free agents coming here of their own volition (well, unless we want to throw away two years waiting on Kevin Durant to join his buddy Harden here; but who's to say Tarantula wouldn't go elsewhere and ask Harden to go sign with him later?) "But....but....KEVIN LOVE!" You want Kevin Love? Offer James Harden. Because other teams are offering Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins. And since that ain't gowanns to happen...
I don't think it will be as big as you would think. There are a lot of good pg's in the league right now.
