Milwaukee Bucks: Meet the 2010s All-Decades Team

Milwaukee Bucks: Meet the 2010s All-Decade Team – Eric Bledsoe

In many ways, the Bucks helped resuscitate Eric Bledsoe’s playing career and not a moment too soon.

Bledsoe famously set things in motion for his arrival to Milwaukee with a tweet heard around the world while a member of the Phoenix Suns and the Bucks pounced on the opportunity to add the disgruntled Bledsoe at a discounted price with the expiring contract of Greg Monroe and a protected first round pick.

As Bucks general manager Jon Horst explained to Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shortly after the trade was finalized, Bledsoe’s mix of skills, talents and high character motivated the team to make such a deal not long into the 2017-18 season:

"“I think this was the right deal because we were able to add someone that’s dynamic, another dynamic player that can score the ball, that can play-make for others, that has defensive toughness, athleticism and strength. And we were able to do that without effectively giving up one of the pieces of our core, as we’ve talked about publicly. Also, the Bucks DNA thing we’ve talked about is real. He is a high-character guy, highly talented, he has positional versatility, he can play on the ball and off the ball and he’s got great toughness.”"

All of that has certainly manifested during Bledsoe’s time in Milwaukee and especially since Mike Budenholzer arrived into the fold back in May of 2018.

It’s been in Milwaukee where Bledsoe has been able to maximize his ability to get downhill and finish at the basket while regaining the fearsome defensive reputation that helped him first break through earlier in his career while with the LA Clippers. And it’s that later point that helped Bledsoe land on the All-Defensive First Team for the 2018-19 season, the highest individual honor of his career to date.

Of course, Bledsoe’s growing Bucks résumé hasn’t been without some very public lowlights in each of the team’s last two playoff runs. And it’s through that where some of the biggest questions exist as it relates to the Bucks’ current pursuit for an NBA championship.

In his 205 appearances with the Bucks, Bledsoe has averaged 16.4 points on a .481/.341/.786 slash line, 5.3 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.5 steals over 29.4 minutes per game.