It’s not often you see a small market team be the one to jump in and acquire a player that is no longer content with his situation on a losing team. But that’s the position the Milwaukee Bucks found themselves in when they traded for point guard Eric Bledsoe early in the 2017-18 season.
In the deal, the Bucks sent big man Greg Monroe and two protected draft picks (a first-rounder and a second-rounder) to the Phoenix Suns. The original deal was given an A letter grade by Adam McGee. By this point, I’m sure everyone still remembers the infamous tweet that Bledsoe sent out amid his displeasure of being with a very bad Suns team. Despite his best efforts the prior season, the Suns were 24-58 in 2016-17 and had the league’s worst defense, allowing over 113 points per game. Bledsoe was in his 8th season in the NBA and wanted a chance to play for a winning team.
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After being drafted 18th overall by the Oklahoma City Thunder (and flipped to the Los Angeles Clippers), Bledsoe had averaged 13.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.4 steals per game across 418 games over his seven seasons.
His averages were even better with the Suns with 18.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, six assists, and 1.6 steals per contest. He was a do-it-all type of guard that could create a positive impact on any team.
The Bucks were on the precipice of breaking out into being a great team, finishing the prior season at 42-40 and made the playoffs after winning 33 games in 2015-16. Giannis Antetokounmpo was on the verge of becoming a superstar, there was still relative optimism around Jabari Parker, Khris Middleton was blossoming into an All-Star caliber player, and they had the reigning Rookie of the Year in Malcolm Brogdon. They needed another piece though and the organization decided was Bledsoe.
The deal showed promise initially, but how does it look all these years later?
The financial impact and acquisition cost of the Eric Bledsoe trade in 2017 for the Milwaukee Bucks
From a purely financial perspective, this was a pretty easy swap to make for the Bucks. Bledsoe was in the middle of a five-year, $70 million contract he signed with the Suns in 2014 and was making around $14.5 million that season. Monroe was in the final year of a three-year, $51.4 million contract that brought him to the Bucks in free agency.
The Bucks were able to save a couple of million dollars in short-term money, but Bledsoe’s deal did hamstring their long-term cap situation since he had a few more years left on his deal. At the time, Parker was eligible for an extension and was set to be a free agent that summer. It also meant that Bledsoe, Middleton, and Brogdon would all be up for extensions at around the same time, which could create some problems. (And it did!)
Bledsoe became the second-highest-paid Buck behind Antetokounmpo, but the Bucks were also anchored by the contracts of Matthew Dellevadova, Tony Snell, Mirza Teletovic, and John Henson who were all making between $9.6 million and $11.4 million. Those were some rough times in Milwaukee’s salary cap history.
As for what Milwaukee gave up, Monroe was a well-liked Buck but losing him wasn’t a big deal. 2017-18 was his penultimate season and he played a total of 94 games in his final two years, split between five different teams.
The first-round pick eventually ended up conveying in the 2020 draft. It was used to select wing Desmond Bane 30th overall, who was traded on draft night to the Memphis Grizzlies. As for the second-rounder, it ended up conveying to the Brooklyn Nets, which was sent to them in a separate deal. The pick was used on Hamidou Diallo, who was traded to the Thunder on draft night. While Diallo is a solid role player, Bane looks like he has the potential to make the Bucks regret the deal slightly but the Bucks needed Bledsoe in 2017 more than they need Bane now.
The on-court fit of the Eric Bledsoe trade in 2017 for the Milwaukee Bucks
There really were two different Bledsoe’s that the Bucks got, one being regular season Bledsoe and the other playoff Bledsoe. The latter of the two truly tanked his tenure with the Bucks and tanks the regrade of this trade, if we’re being honest. If the Bucks got regular season Bledsoe in the playoffs, we’re probably looking at a 2021-22 Bucks roster with him still on the team.
Let’s start with the positive though. In 210 regular-season games (started all 210!) with Milwaukee, Bledsoe averaged 16.3 points, 4.4 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.5 steals. Those aren’t too far off from his averages in Phoenix and he did have a reduced overall role, going from a near 26 percent usage rate with the Suns to just over 24 percent with the Bucks.
Partially due to his reduced role, his efficiency went up from a 56.1 percent true shooting percentage to 57.8 percent, and his effective field goal percentage increased by four and a half percent. He even cut down his turnover rate by two percent between his Phoenix and Milwaukee tenures. He was a very solid player for the Bucks in the regular season and even made two All-Defense teams in his second and third seasons with the Bucks, living up to the defensive potential many knew he had.
Lineups with him, Antetokounmpo, and Middleton routinely had a positive net rating with the highest being a staggering +18.9 in 678 minutes during the 2019-20 regular season according to NBA.com/stats. It was the second-highest net rating for any three-man lineup combo with at least 500 minutes together. The highest was another lineup with Bledsoe and Antetokounmpo, but with Wesley Matthews. For all of the initial concerns of how Bledsoe’s inconsistent shooting would fit with Antetokounmpo, the two were brilliant together in the regular season. Let’s remember some of the good times with Bledsoe together!
But we use that regular-season caveat for a reason because playoff Bledsoe was a whole different story. In 31 playoff games with the Bucks (he started all of them too!), Bledsoe’s averages fell to 13.1 points, 3.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.1 steals. But that doesn’t come close to telling the full story.
His regular-season 3-point percentage dropped from 34 percent in his regular-season Bucks career to 25.4 percent in the playoffs (4.1 attempts per game might be the worst part). His true shooting dropped by over eight percent (49.4 percent in the playoffs) while his 3-point attempt rate stayed right around the same. Bledsoe’s regular-season Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) was 7.2. In the playoffs, it was 0.3. He was worth 19.2 win shares in the regular season, but only 1.1 in the playoffs. Surprisingly, his turnover rate was right around the same so we can at least give him credit for not turning the ball over as much while maintaining a similar usage.
His net rating with Antetokounmpo and Middleton plummeted in the 2020 playoffs to +3.0, a nearly 16 point drop from their regular-season mark. He was simply a different player in the postseason and his legacy as a Buck suffered severely because of it.
I really wish things turned out better for Bledsoe in his time with the Bucks. He came in and wanted to be with the team, seemed to be well-liked by his teammates, and gave a ton of effort (sometimes too much in the playoffs). I still have a soft spot in my heart for Bledsoe despite all of his playoff struggles and I hope he finds success.
And things could have turned out better if the Bucks got the same player in the playoffs that they got for over 200 regular-season games. There are players that get better in the playoffs and unfortunately, there are those that get worse.
Bledsoe’s inconsistent shooting led to teams daring him to shoot in the playoffs and he obliged them every time. I’m sure part of his playoff struggles had to do with carrying such a large burden as a point-of-attack defender, similar to Jrue Holiday’s offensive struggles in the most recent playoffs. But as we saw, Holiday was able to play at another level on defense while still providing timely shot-making and have the occasional big performance on offense.
I probably hold less ill-will towards Bledsoe than most Bucks fans, but I’ll end with my favorite moment of Bledsoe’s Bucks tenure when he committed a violent and heinous act on a basketball court.
BTBP Final (Updated) Grade: C+
Bledsoe is now back where he started his NBA career after a trade this offseason sent him to the Los Angeles Clippers.