Bledsoe's statistics since the inception of the CSL
Two years ago, Eric Bledsoe enjoyed an excellent statistical season. He was on an awful Suns team with little talent that let him do whatever he wanted offensively (to the tune of 105 touches per game). Needless to say, he got a lot of touches and enjoyed career highs in points, rebounds and assists. Despite averaging 22 points, 5.5 assists, 4 rebounds, and over a steal and block per game to go with excellent defensive metrics, it was easy for fellow GMs to keep him off the all-star team. Bledsoe was a turnover machine, and the Suns were dreadful: winning just 21 games that year (bad enough for 5th worst in the league).Following that season, Bledsoe was determined to work on his weaknesses and take his game to another level. After a successful training camp, Bledsoe was ready to take on the CSL for round 2. Despite seeing his touches drop by 18 per game, Bledsoe put up offensive numbers that were only just a hair below the previous season’s. However, Bledsoe cut his turnovers dramatically, put up even better defensive statistics, and helped raise the Suns near a 0.500 record (along with the help of newcomers Isaiah Austin and Jimmy Butler). Fellow GMs were running out of excuses to keep Bledsoe off the all-star team, but again Bledsoe came up short. Although the Suns would go on to win 17 more games that year than the year before, voters still pointed to the fact that the Suns just weren’t good enough to have an all-star.
NOTE: Technically speaking, Bledsoe made the all-star team this year, but it was only as a 4th alternate after other all-stars withdrew from the game with injuries. So that’s being thrown out.
Bledsoe's reaction to finding out he'd been left off another all-star team despite his best efforts
This brings us to year 3 in the CSL. Due to a big influx in talent that saw Andrew Wiggins, Delon Wright, Sam Dekker and Patrick Beverley added to the roster, Bledsoe saw his touches drop again to 75 per game as he was moved to shooting guard. His points and assists dropped a hair to 18 and 5 (still excellent numbers), but he compensated in many other ways. He has become very efficient shooting (46.4% overall, 43.5% from deep), he’s enjoying a career year in terms of steals (2.3), blocks (1.2), turnovers forced (3.4) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.1). To top it off, the Suns are enjoying a resoundingly successful season, as they currently sit 3rd in the Western Conference. At last, when the all-star team was announced, Bledsoe saw his name on the reserve list (albeit just barely). Bledsoe was very thankful just to be part of the team.It’s truly an honor to be recognized for all your hard work and be voted an all-star by the GMs around the league. You see the other names on the team, and it’s humbling just to be mentioned in the same sentence as some of these future hall of famers. All-star weekend will be a lot of fun, but after that, it’s back to the main goal of winning that trophy. I’ve never been involved in a title hunt before, so it’ll be exciting for sure.
Bledsoe was all SMILES this time around
