NBA Saturday: Eric Bledsoe Reaching New Heights

It has been a tough season so far for the Phoenix Suns. In a surprisingly weak Western Conference, the Suns currently sit in 11^th place with a 12-19 record. There are several issues for the Suns right now, including the ongoing Markieff Morris situation, Tyson Chandler’s injuries, close losses to mediocre teams, poor crunch-time execution, turning the ball over too much and poor defense in transition among other things. While the Suns have failed to meet expectations so far, Eric Bledsoe has been a bright spot for Phoenix this season.

Between the large number of star point guards in the NBA today and the Suns’ recent struggles, Bledsoe’s career-year has gone largely unnoticed. In 35 minutes per game, Bledsoe is averaging 20.9 points, 6.3 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 2.1 steals while shooting 45.3 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from three. He is averaging career-highs in scoring, assists and steals and is shooting the ball as well as ever with a 55.7 True Shooting Percentage.

Bledsoe was a non-threat earlier in his career from distance, shooting just 27.6 percent and 20 percent from beyond the arc in his first two seasons in the league. Now Bledsoe is a real threat from distance as he is shooting 37.5 percent on a healthy 4.3 three-point attempts per game. Bledsoe isn’t exactly Stephen Curry in terms of shooting proficiency, but among all players shooting two or more pull-up three-pointers per game, Bledsoe ranks third in terms of accuracy, shooting 40.8 percent on 2.4 pull-up three-pointers per game (just ahead of Curry, who is shooting 39.6 percent on 5.5 attempts per game).

Bledsoe still stands to improve significantly as a shooter considering he is shooting 36.5 percent on catch and shoot three-pointers and, as we can see in the shot chart above, less than 20 percent from the corners. However, he is now enough of a threat that opponents have to guard him closely out at distance, which gives him more opportunities to use his impressive speed and athleticism to attack the rim. Unfortunately, Bledsoe is shooting slightly below league average at or near the rim this season, which is surprising when you consider how explosive he is. However, it is early in the season and Bledsoe could certainly improve his proficiency around the rim moving forward.

In addition to his improved three-point shooting, Bledsoe has improved significantly as a pick-and-roll ball handler since his early days in the league. As of December 26, Bledsoe has been the ball handler on 258 pick-and-roll possessions, a play that is generating .98 points per possession, which places Bledsoe in the 86.7 percentile. Bledsoe has improved his timing, change-of-pace dribbles and patience in the pick-and-roll, which is paying off for the 26-year-old guard who too often relied on his athletic ability in past seasons. Many of these skills started improving in his time with the Los Angeles Clippers, where he briefly backed up and learned from Chris Paul. Between his improved shooting from distance and increased proficiency in the pick-and-roll, Bledsoe has turned himself into one of the most productive point guards in the NBA.

But while Bledsoe has always been a gifted player, he has never really been considered a top-tier point guard. Players like Chris Paul, John Wall, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Kyle Lowry, Kyrie Irving and Damian Lillard are generally considered to be in a tier above Bledsoe, though Bledsoe is playing well enough that we should probably start reconsidering his standing among his peers. However, there are shortcomings in Bledsoe’s game that need to be corrected moving forward. Bledsoe turns the ball over too often (3.6 per game), he’s still not an elite ball handler like some of the aforementioned point guards, he takes plays off sometimes and while he can be an ace on defense, too often he loses focus when defending off the ball, which leads to blown rotations and easy points for opponents. These are things that Bledsoe needs to address moving forward or he will continue to be regarded as a second-tier point guard.

Regarding his defense, Bledsoe is still one of the most tenacious on-ball defensive point guards in the league. When he is locked in and focused on stopping his man, he is an impact defensive player. But, as previously mentioned, Bledsoe has a bad habit of losing track of his man when he is off the ball, giving up back door layups and easy scoring opportunities. Bledsoe has always had a tendency to do this, but for some reason it has been worse this season than in past seasons.

Though ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus metric doesn’t perfectly encompass a player’s defensive impact, it is noteworthy that last season Bledsoe registered a 1.85 Defensive Real Plus-Minus rating, while this season, he is currently registering a -0.3 rating (though it should be noted that he is fourth among all point guards in RPM, ahead of players like Paul, Wall and Lillard). The sample size is very small for this season, so this rating should be received with some skepticism, but what is certain is that Bledsoe needs to hone in on off-the-ball defense as much as he does on one-on-one defense in order to impact the game at the level he is capable of defensively.

To his credit, Bledsoe is keeping his opponents to just below league average shooting percentages on the perimeter (with the exception of the corners) as we can see in his defensive shot chart provided by NBA Savant.

But again, defending the ball and closing out on shooters isn’t the issue defensively for Bledsoe, but rather keeping focus even when guarding someone off the ball. But even with this in mind, Bledsoe is still one of the best defensive point guards in the league overall, he can switch seamlessly onto the biggest and best shooting guards and is a tough matchup for any opposing point guard to try and score on.

It is unfortunate that Bledsoe’s improved play has gone largely unnoticed as a result of Phoenix’s disappointing play so far this season. Bledsoe isn’t the best shooter, decision maker, finisher at the rim or overall floor general at the point guard position, but his combination of scoring, improved playmaking and pick-and-roll proficiency, in addition to his tight one-on-one defense, makes him one of the most impactful point guards in the league.