Suns GM Expects Eric Bledsoe Will Re-Sign
The Phoenix Suns and restricted free agent guard Eric Bledsoe have yet to reach a deal that pleases both parties to keep him in Phoenix, but Suns general manager Ryan McDonough seems intent on not letting him go, and confident that they won’t lose him,
Our strong preference would be to have Eric back in a Phoenix Suns uniform. We’ve had productive dialogue with Eric’s representatives. It’s just a process. The free agency process goes different lengths of time for different players.
Phoenix drafted Syracuse point guard Tyler Ennis and completed a sign-and-trade for Sacramento Kings point guard Isaiah Thomas, suggesting to some that they might explore some options in trading one of the two point guards already on the roster in Bledsoe and Goran Dragic. At this point it’s looking more like Phoenix is doing their best to hang onto all of their guard assets.
We’re certainly not exploring trades. Do we get occasional trade calls? Yeah, we get occasional trade calls about all of the guys on our roster so we want him back, I think he will be back at the end of the day, and proactively looking to trade him is certainly not something we’re looking to do.
Bledsoe is reportedly looking for a max-level contract in the ball park of five years $80 million. The Suns have offered $48 million over five years. This after Bledsoe’s career-best season in points (17.7), assists (5.5), and rebounds (4.7) per game with Phoenix.
We’ve had our initial conversations and made offers and counter-offers, and we’ll continue to talk to them and try to work something out. I think at the end of the day we will. As you guys know, Eric has been a big part of our team, he had a terrific year this past year and hopefully is a big part of our team going forward.
Negotiations will continue with Phoenix and Bledsoe, but we’ll also have to see if the right offer presents itself that Phoenix either can’t or won’t want to refuse.
