Broussard: Suns & Bledsoe $32M apart in negotiatons

Wow can't believe I forgot Memphis. They have a perfect team to slow down the suns, and then bully them in the post on offense

 

I agree a max would be too mucvh money but this is the NBA and if the only attractive free agents are Bledsoe and Dragic with 6-8 teams having max cap space, supply and demand will drive the pricing up. Lowry still got $12 million and his only legit options were Toronto and Houston.

 

And Rondo, too. How many teams with cap space will really need a max salary point guard? One of these three might be left out in the cold and settle for a Lowry-sized deal.

 

All the teams have to do is look @ DWill and DRose and say no way to max contracts for point guards.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Greg Monroe has informed Pistons he will sign qualifying offer and Eric Bledsoe is considering doing same with Suns: <a href="http://t.co/b5HMmUUlSq">http://t.co/b5HMmUUlSq</a></p>&mdash; Jeff Zillgitt (@JeffZillgitt) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffZillgitt/statuses/499336966115438593">August 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
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[rQUOTEr]Restricted free agent Eric Bledsoe recently said the Phoenix Suns are using the system against him.

Bledsoe, a point guard for the Suns, wants a five-year, full-max deal worth $84 million, a contract significantly higher than the four-year, $48 million deal the Suns have presented. The Suns counter that their offer is fair.

The Suns are using the system — the rules of the collective bargaining agreement — to their advantage. The two sides still don't have a deal with training camp less than two months away, and the rift only has grown.

The relationship between the two sides has soured, a person with knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports. The person requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

The person also said Bledsoe, 24, strongly is considering signing the Suns' qualifying offer for $3.726 million — good for the 2014-15 season — to become an unrestricted free agent after next summer.

In a best-case scenario for Bledsoe, the Suns would have offered the deal he wanted, and this situation wouldn't be unresolved in August. Or another team would have enticed him with an offer sheet and he would have signed a deal similar to what Charlotte offered and what Utah matched for Gordon Hayward. That didn't happen either.

Now, Bledsoe is in position to take control of his situation. The Pistons will lose a lottery pick for nothing if a sign-and-trade can't be completed, and the Suns are also on the verge of losing Bledsoe after next season for nothing.

Restricted free agency comes with risks for both the player and the team.[/rQUOTEr]

 

Now, the pressure is on the Suns and SVGists to get something done, or else! Here come all the SnT offers!

 

Yahoo! NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski: Bledsoe, agent 'boxed themselves into a corner'

Quote:

On Monday's Bickley and Marotta show on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, Wojnarowski said Bledsoe and his agent, Rich Paul, have "kind of boxed themselves into a corner" after rejecting the Suns' four-year, $48 million offer but being unable to secure an offer sheet from another team.

"It's not really a negotiating strategy to say, ‘Max deal or nothing.'" he said. "Restricted free agency is about the agent going out and getting an offer sheet for his player. That's it. It's not about the Suns bidding against themselves. Utah didn't bid against itself with Gordon Hayward, and Houston didn't do that with Chandler Parsons, but their agents went out and got offer sheets, and got max offer sheets."

Wojnarowski said the Suns' offseason signing of point guard Isaiah Thomas, who averaged 20.3 points and 6.3 assists per game last season with the Sacramento Kings, was for "insurance and protection" in case they aren't able to come to terms with Bledsoe.

"I do think the plan was that Thomas would play with Bledsoe and be a sixth man, and would certainly play a significant role," he said. "But they've got an insurance policy with him there now…"

Regardless, Wojnarowski said he "can't imagine a scenario" in which the Suns would allow Bledsoe, who averaged 17.7 points and 5.5 assists per game last season but missed 39 games due to injury, to "march out into free agency and lose him for nothing."

While the lines of communication between Bledsoe and the Suns may be cut off at the moment, Wojnarowski said it's not too late to reopen them.

"A lot of this, I think, is posture. The idea that it's so poisonous and they can't go back - everybody can go back. I don't buy that. But the Suns will have to make a decision going forward with him.

"If there was a number a little higher than ($12 million per year) that could get a deal done, I'd be shocked if they didn't do it."​

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Approaching six months of &quot;zero communication&quot; between Suns and RFA Eric Bledsoe, league source says. Qualifying offer imminent.</p>&mdash; Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/507933158327992320">September 5, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Very interesting. Isn't Plowman adamant that Bledsoe will not sign the QO? Not saying he is wrong, but noteworthy that different sources are providing varying insight into this

 

To be honest, would Suns seriously match whatever is offer to Bledsoe. Clearly Bledsoe don't want to be there, so why match for a player who have no will to play for your team?

 

I think at one point he was adamant that Bledsoe would not sign a QO, but not sure if that's still his position.

 

@kingjames: Great work today lil bro @ebled2!! Future All-Star in this league in no time. PHX break bread. #Klutch #Work #GymRats #StriveForGreatness

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Monroe essentially came out and publicly said he was signing the QO, but did he actually go through with it? Have we seen that officially happen yet?

As far as we know the 4yr/48 mil offer is still on the table from Phoenix as it should be, as it is obviously a fair market value contract.

The QO expires on October the 1st which is well after training camp starts. After that, Bledsoe simply goes back into RFA status, and at that point is really at the mercy of the Sun's management with contract negotiations.

What you are going to see is that Bledsoe hold himself out of the start of training camp until the deadline where Bledsoe & the Suns ultimately come to agreement on a new deal. This happens all the time in sports, and ultimately always ends up with a new deal.

The reason is the Suns have the upper hand here. They know Bledsoe will have a deadline, and they know he's not going to walk away from a fair high dollar contract to sign the QO. That won't happen with his injury history no matter what kind of threats you see coming from his camp.

The Suns also have no reason to trade him either. As they know he's going to end up signing a value/fair contract at some point during training camp, he will then be an asset to the team moving forward that should be fairly easy to move in the future if they need it.

Bledsoe on the contract that he WILL BE on, will have greater trade value than anything they will get offered to them come the end of the month (IE, Terry's contract, the Pelle's pick, and a couple other small contracts).

I'm not an insider. I'm just telling you guys how it is in business, and the business of sports contracts. This happens all the time in other sports... especially football which has the ultimate team leverage vs. player leverage in pro sports contracts. You can get as excited as you want to about "insider" reports, but I personally would tell folks that asked to temper their expectations.

 

It's difficult to trust journalists, let alone professional, er, blog-ologists(?)

I don't know this Chris Haynes but "QO imminent" isn't from any source, it's just the obvious last resort in case nothing gets done in the next few weeks.

Haynes might or might not have meant to mislead.

 

Of course they would if the contract makes Bledsoe an asset for them. I'm sure they were fully expecting someone to offer him a deal that they were expecting to match, but they aren't going to overpay beyond a players market value when obviously he's not getting market value offers.

"Bledsoe doesn't want to be there"...... don't confuse that with:

"Bledsoe is mad that he's not getting paid a max deal, and would sign elsewhere now for more money".

Bledsoe, before his injury, was having a career year in Phoenix. He's got the starting nod, and is expected to carry a large bulk of the offensive load... oh and he's in the NBA. Eric Bledsoe will play for the Phoenix Suns, and probably play well if he's resigned. He's not going to go all "Royce White" on the Suns. He's got too much to lose to do that.

 

They have the right to, and that is all that should matter. As long as the contract is not really overpaying him then they will match and trade him if he is adamant about wanting out.

What dobro said.

 

Most likely an intentional leak from his agent.

 

They have the right to, and that is all that should matter. As long as the contract is not really overpaying him then they will match and trade him if he is adamant about wanting out.

 

Does anyone else think

Bledsoe - great 2 way player
Harden - go to scorer
Ariza - 2 way player
Jones - rebounder
Howard - does everything well overall

Would be the best starting 5 in the league? Notice i did not say best team because our coaching and bench is still suspect. The only noticable holes are jones defense which will only get better and hardens defense which he usually makes up for on offense.

I try not to be a homer, but the west has some great point guards and bledsoe would wear them out on both offense and defense. The only thing i would worry about is injuries, especially with our weak bench.