Bucks Likely To Trade Eric Bledsoe For Pennies On The Dollar

Right or wrong, Eric Bledsoe has been the primary scapegoat for the Milwaukee Bucks’ postseason failures for three straight years, dating back to their first-round loss to the Boston Celtics in 2018. And it’s difficult to make a case they can win when it matters most with him as their starting point guard considering his abysmal playoff showings.

This scrutiny has led to The Athletic’s Shams Charania reporting, “Rival executives expect the Bucks to prioritize acquiring a playmaker and more shooting in the offseason to retool the roster around Antetokounmpo. Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe is under contract for multiple seasons and had another standout season by earning All-Defensive team honors, but he is expected to become a potential trade candidate.”

However, like an onion splitting into many layers, trading Bledsoe will prove more difficult than it appears on the surface.

When he’s at his best (which is often from October to April), he’s one of the top 15 point guards in the NBA. He’s been a critical part of Milwaukee’s top-ranked defense over the past two seasons and they wouldn’t have had nearly the success without him. He’s excellent at navigating over and through ball screens, one of the most-used actions in today’s NBA. This ball pressure is a key component to Mike Budenholzer’s defensive scheme.

On the other end of the court, he’s one of the only three Bucks who can create his own shot consistently, and only one of two who can get to the rim on a regular basis. This shot creation is incredibly important for an offense that loves to spread all five guys on the perimeter to create maximum space for their ball-handlers.

When the Bucks are getting that version, there aren’t many better point guards in the NBA. That shortlist includes Luka Doncic, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Steph Curry, Ben Simmons, Kyrie Irving, Kyle Lowry, Kemba Walker and a few other guys who are arguably in the same tier as Bledsoe (Russell Westbrook, Trae Young, Ja Morant, Jamaal Murray, De’Aaron Fox, D’Angelo Russell and Jrue Holiday). For those of you keeping track at home, that puts Bled as one of the top 10-to-17 points in the league.

Of those guys who are clearly better than or at the same level as Bledsoe, there’s only two who appear to be available this offseason—Chris Paul and Jrue Holiday. It would cost the Bucks a fortune to trade for either player potentially including future draft picks and/or Donte DiVincenzo—the only young player with decent potential on Milwaukee’s roster. Is that a price they’re willing to pay?

It’s not as if Bledsoe carries a lot of trade value of his own at this point. His annual disappearing act in the playoffs has everyone questioning his value when the games matter most. Most concerning is his outside shot. He’s a below-average shooter to begin with, knocking down just 34 percent of his threes in two-plus seasons with the Bucks, but he completely falls apart in the playoffs, making only 25.4 percent in 31 games. This allows defenses to completely ignore him and use his defender to help shut down driving lanes.

Even worse, his lack of a consistent three-point shot leaks over into other aspects of his game when it affects him mentally. Bledsoe gets inside his own head and the rest of his play suffers as a result.

It’s impossible to ignore these postseason struggles when evaluating his overall game which means we must add more players to the list of point guards who could be better than him or are at least in the same tier when the games matter most. For argument’s sake, we’ll now add Fred VanVleet, Spencer Dinwiddie, Goran Dragic and Mike Conley with the possibility other players who normally wouldn’t even be in the same sentence as Bledsoe (like D.J. Augustin or Derrick Rose) now being considered as well.

There are more realistic candidates in this second group of players. VanVleet, Dragic and Augustin are all free agents although the first two are assuredly out of the Bucks’ price range. Dinwiddie is an unlikely trade candidate, but it wouldn’t be difficult to convince the Detroit Pistons to part with Rose. All of those options would lower Milwaukee’s regular season ceiling, but potentially provide solutions to the postseason woes. However, trying to win the NBA Championship with Rose or Augustin as your starting point guard is a dangerous task. 

Milwaukee’s general manager Jon Horst might be forced to think outside the box and look at non-traditional point guard options when it comes to replacing Bledsoe or risk trading him away for change sake. It may be trendy to demand the Bucks get rid of Bledsoe, but the truth is it’s a lot more difficult than that. Finding a willing dance partner is a tall task in its own right, and then you add in the Bucks’ motivation to improve with any and all moves and it becomes monumental.

Whatever decision they make (and a move is undoubtedly coming) the Bucks’ will likely become a worse 82-game team, with the hopes of increasing their 16-game ceiling. 

Whatever the solution is, moving on from Bledsoe is layered like an onion. Milwaukee’s sole goal isn’t just to get rid of their starting point guard, they still need to improve their championship probability in the process. They can hardly justify getting rid of their third/fourth best player and get pennies on the dollar in return. If the Bucks want to trade Bledsoe AND get better, like that onion, they’ll have to peel back the layers.