With the FIBA World Championships over and NBA training camps starting in a few days, there's been a bit of a gap in the news department for NBA fans. So when it came out that the Minnesota Timberwolves were exploring options to acquire Eric Bledsoe in a sign and trade from the Phoenix Suns, the basketball world's collective heads turned and took notice.
Bledsoe is convinced that he is a max-offer type of player. Whether you agree with this or not (I wholeheartedly do not agree), the two sides are apparently pretty far apart in negotiations. The Phoenix Suns offered four years and 48 million dollars. This would help maintain cap flexibility for a young team that played well in the second half of the season and has hopes to crack the playoffs in the west this year. Bledsoe, however, wants a max deal which would pay him 64 million over four years. Neither side intends to yield ground and it has been widely assumed that Bledsoe will sign the qualifying offer and become a unrestricted free agent next year.
But in came the Timberwolves, who have already made a substantial number of moves this summer, saying that they're engaging with the Suns in a sign and trade deal for Bledsoe. This just seems like quite a bit of smoke and no fire to me. The Suns aren't going to let Bledsoe go for anything less than an all-star in return and I am sure that the Timberwolves know this. But now the Timberwolves will definitely be on Bledsoe's radar later in the season and/or next summer if Phoenix doesn't find a suitable deal during the season. This was never about making it happen now. It was about later in the year.
The Timberwolves aren't in any rush to resign Ricky Rubio and many speculate that the organization may not be as in love with him as they were just two years ago. By making noise about Bledsoe and pushing a max offer his way, Minnesota has purposely shown its hand and revealed just how serious it is about making Bledsoe its starting point guard in 2015. It is a move that makes great sense for them as an organization and I think that they made a great decision to start planting the seeds in Bledsoe's mind now. A max contract for him is still a little rich for my blood, but it would be hard to argue with a Wiggins and Bledsoe combo.
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