Well since Bledsoe is a Restricted FA and the Suns have already said they will match any offer for him as well as saying that he is part of their future I don't see them trading him. They want to build around him. They overachieved in large part because of him so why would they trade him?
Their GM learned from Ainge that anyone is tradable if the price is right. I don't expect the OP's idea to occur, but if Bledsoe wanted to play elsewhere and negotiated a contract with that team, I'm sure McDonough would be willing to listen to offers before matching the offer Bledsoe received.
Also, stating that they'll match any offer is designed to have two effects, in addition to the potentially honest position that it may be:
1) It tells teams interested in Bledsoe to call the Suns first to work out a trade (once signed to an offer sheet, a trade isn't possible.)
2) It may have the effect of keeping down Bledsoe's offers from other teams. If you sign a restricted free agent to an offer sheet, you lose that amount of cap space until the original team either matches the offer or declines to match -- a process that can take three days. In the fast-paced world of the summer free agency period, a team may not want to risk having their cap dollars tied up in a player they may ultimately not be able to sign. After three days, their plans B, C, and D may be off the market. While it only takes one team, there are a finite amount of teams with the cap room to sign Bledsoe to a large free agent deal. If those teams all turn to other free agents, Bledsoe's offers may never materialize, and he'll be forced to accept a little less. This is what happened to Pekovic last summer. (He could of course sign his qualifying offer, but the difference in that and what the Suns would even offer at a reduced price is too great to be worth the risk).
You will hear Danny use not quite as strong language about Bradley, but similar language nonetheless during the offseason. This is for similar reasons -- it allows him to signal to teams to call him about a sign-and-trade, and it may hold down Bradley's offers to something Ainge considers more reasonable. With Bradley, of course, it is possible that some team could offer way more than Ainge is willing to go (which isn't the case with Bledsoe, who the Suns might be willing to match a max deal for), but that's pretty unlikely. More likely is that Ainge lets the market set Bradley's price, or orchestrates a sign-and-trade. There's also a greater chance that AB just plays for his qualifying offer next season if the offers don't materialize -- he wouldn't be leaving nearly as much on the table.
One last point -- the Suns have overachieved this year, but as Bledsoe has played in fewer than half of the team's games, it is not clear how much of that achievement is due to him. It may very well be that the Suns wouldn't mind trading him and adding a player who could help them more.
Topic: Eric Bledsoe (Read 3803 times)