It’s Eric Bledsoe’s Time To Shine

The Phoenix Suns had an up and down offseason this summer. They acquired veteran center Tyson Chandler as a free agent, but were not able to get the NBA’s top free agent Lamarcus Aldridge. While in pursuit of Aldridge, the team traded away Marcus Morris to free up some space, but this did not go down well with his twin brother Markieff, who is now demanding a trade from the team.

But even with all of this going on with the team, there are still high expectations for the Suns, who have not made the playoffs since reaching the Western Conference Finals in the 2009-10 season.

With the team now pretty much set for the upcoming season, a lot of pressure will be on their starting point guard Eric Bledsoe. Bledsoe has been a solid point guard througout his career, but has never really been the ‘star’ of a team.

In his early years in the NBA, he was the back up to the best point guard in the league Chris Paul while on the Los Angeles Clippers. And, while there is some pressure in that situation, this is a totally different type of pressure, one that holds more value to a team.

At the start of the season last year, the Suns had Goran Dragic. At that time, Dragic was seen as the face of the Suns, but after he was traded away, along with their other point guard Isiah Thomas being shipped away on the same day, it was obvious that the team was trying to give Bledsoe a message that he was going to be their point guard of the future.

Like I said before, Bledsoe has always been a solid point guard. But with the Western Conference being as competitive as it is today, a team’s star player is going to have to be better than solid, he is going to have to be great if that team has any chance of reaching the playoffs.

Last year, Bledsoe averaged 17ppg, 6.1apg, and 1.6spg in 81 games. These numbers are not bad, but will have to go up this season for the 25 year old guard. The big thing that Bledsoe is going to have to improve upon is his turnovers. He averaged 3.5topg last year, and a lot of those came down the stretch of games, when the team needed him to make a play.

Bledsoe is known for his quickness and ability to get to the basket, but has never been a very good shooter. If he can improve on his shooting ability, as well as cut down on his turnovers and get his teammates involved just a little more, there is no doubt that he can lead the Suns to a playoff position in the West, and even possibly see himself in his first All-Star Game come midseason. It will be interesting to see what he can do now that he is the ‘man’ of the team, and not being overshadowed by any teammate.

Author: Tim Tunis

I graduated from college with a degree in sports journalism. I’ve always been a big sports fan and loved to write about it. I’m from Boston but have been a Phoenix Suns fan my whole life, and I hope everyone likes my writing even if you don’t agree with some of the things I say. Go Suns!

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