Suns beat writer Coro: ‘Limited’ number of teams who can pursue Eric Bledsoe
Jul 8, 2014, 5:11 PM | Updated: 5:12 pm
He’s one of the biggest names on the free agent market, yet his has not been talked about much over the last week.
But that doesn’t mean Eric Bledsoe, the Phoenix Suns’ restricted free agent, has not drawn interest from other teams.
According to AZCentral Sports Suns beat writer Paul Coro, the issue is there is not a large market for his services.
“There’s really a limited amount of teams who have the cap space to do the kind of contract he’s looking for and need a point guard,” Coro told Doug and Wolf on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Tuesday.
Coro brought up the Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks and Dallas Mavericks as potential suitors, but said most of those teams are after other free agents first and will turn their attention to Bledsoe if they miss out on their initial target.
“He’s on that next tier and it’s not that he still won’t get a big offer,” Coro said, noting that everyone is kind of waiting on LeBron James and Chris Bosh to sign before they will look at other options. “If teams miss on him, then Bledsoe’s that next biggest free agent and maybe they get involved there too.”
Bledsoe, 24, is coming off his first full season as a starter. Injuries limited him to just 43 games, but when in the lineup he was a force, averaging 17.7 points, 5.5 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game. He shot 47.7 percent from the field and made nearly 36 percent of his three-point attempts.
He was one-half of a dynamic backcourt, and along with Goran Dragic is expected to help lead the Suns to the postseason for the first time since 2010.
Other teams are aware of the Suns’ desire to keep him, which is another thing that may be keeping them from extending an offer. As a restricted free agent, any offer sheet Bledsoe signs can be matched by Phoenix.
“If you do an offer sheet to a restricted free agent, now you’re money is tied up longer and it could be for naught if the Suns just wind up matching it,” Coro said.
