Milwaukee Bucks: Ranking the top 5 trade chips this offseason

Ranking the Milwaukee Bucks’ top 5 trade chips this offseason – Eric Bledsoe

There may not be a more polarizing trade candidate this offseason than starting Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe.

The discussion points are obvious and it all starts with Bledsoe’s dismal playoff performances that only grow more bewildering by the year. Bledsoe alone isn’t a fault for why the Bucks’ regular season success hasn’t translated to nearly the same degree in a playoff setting, but he singularly summarizes one of the Bucks’ biggest problems in that regard.

From that standpoint, there’s no secret to why Bledsoe is reportedly viewed as expendable this offseason. The Athletic’s Shams Charania ($$) reported in light of the Bucks’ playoff failure that the 30-year-old is “expected to become a potential trade candidate.”

Having just finished out the first year of his four-year, $70 million contract extension signed in March of 2019, Bledsoe is owed $54.3 million over the next three seasons. However, like Hill, the final year of Bledsoe’s deal is partially guaranteed at $3.9 million ahead of the start of the 2022 free agency period.

Even on what’s a far from bloated contract, that’s quite the salary to take on for any opposing team and when you combine that along with Bledsoe’s playoff struggles and shooting limitations, the Bucks aren’t operating from a position of strength in trade talks.

With all of that said, there’s no shame in saying Bledsoe is a starting-caliber guard in this league. Since coming to Milwaukee, he’s reasserted himself as one of the perimeter defenders in the league, now having been named to two consecutive All-Defense selections.

But there is ceiling to what he offers up to a team and the rest of the league knows it.