Can Eric Bledsoe be relied upon to actually stay healthy?

[sunsfan88]

I know all of ours (including myself) popular discussion when talking about our PGs is to discuss Knight & what we do with him. However, I think there's a bigger conundrum among our PG issues...the future of Eric Bledsoe.

Everyone seems to assume our backcourt is set for the future with Bledsoe/Booker.

But can Bledsoe actually be relied upon to stay healthy? The Suns have the best training staff in sports and yet even they've had a hard time keeping him from suffering these knee injuries time and time again. If he can't be relied on to stay healthy, then perhaps it's time to not just trade Knight but Bledsoe as well and find a durable PG whether that's grooming one through the draft or finding one in free agency.

IMO it's not fair to Booker to place point guard duties on him too because our $70M PGs can't stay healthy.

In a recent poll on the realgm forums of most injury prone players who are actually good when healthy, Bledsoe was #2 behind only Beal.

http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1449875

And can't really argue the poll results either...does anyone here have any confidence that Bledsoe can actually last til even January or February?

The only time Bledsoe finished the whole season was when we had Dragic and IT too to ease his PG duties. However, we can't expect to have 2 other starting caliber PGs on the roster just because Bledsoe can't stay without it...that's not a luxury the Suns can afford considering their putrid front court and quite frankly that's not a luxury most teams in the league have either.

Suns have to make a decision on Bledsoe soon imo and it's a important one than the Knight decision. I'm not sure Bledsoe will be tradable if he suffers yet another injury...he's too close to reaching Eric Gordon/Derrick Rose status if he's not there yet already imo. Right now I think Suns may still be able to get some value for him if they feel his knees are too much of a risk after what's now been 3 or 4 procedures/surgeries done on them.

 

[Phrazbit]

lol, on a poll with 3 names he came in 2nd. Very scientific.

 

[slinslin]

Ridiculous thread. It is not like there is a real alternative anyway.

Plus I love how the core of the team has stayed together in Phoenix to workout this year.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Sometimes players seem like they will never get healthy, and then they have a good run. Tyson Chandler, early in his career was like that. Same with Grant Hill. Bledsoe has taken the conservative route in dealing with his injuries, so I am hopeful.

 

[Ronin]

I hope so.

 

[GatorAZ]

This is the year for him. If I can't stay healthy we're screwed and he's damaged goods.

 

[Mainstreet]

The best option for the Suns is to draft a PG with enough talent that might be able to eventually replace Bledsoe. He can learn as a backup PG for now.

There does not seem to be much available in free agency.

I think it is a good topic.

More options in the poll would have been nice but I appreciate the thread.

 

[Errntknght]

I've been saying since his first year here that Bled can't play starters minutes without coasting on defense - he's still a pretty good defender but he was considerably better when he was backing up CP with the Clippers. When he matches up against Westbrook he still goes all out and it's quite a big difference. That doesn't guarantee that he won't be injured but it should help. He won't like it but he'll get over it

 

[AzStevenCal]

I've been saying since his first year here that Bled can't play starters minutes without coasting on defense - he's still a pretty good defender but he was considerably better when he was backing up CP with the Clippers. When he matches up against Westbrook he still goes all out and it's quite a big difference. That doesn't guarantee that he won't be injured but it should help. He won't like it but he'll get over it

I don't know if it will help his injury issues but I've been harping on controlling his minutes from early on too. And it's not just his defense, I believe he coasts on offense at times too. That was a small matter when he could let Goran go to work for awhile but as your primary ballhandler, it's a problem. But the biggest difference is on D, he gets beat regularly when he's back on his heels trying to pace himself.

As for whether we can rely on him, who in the world knows? We have zero information about what his knees look like inside and how much damage has been done. Until then, it's just a wild guess. All we really know is that he hasn't been reliable so far.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I don't know if it will help his injury issues but I've been harping on controlling his minutes from early on too. And it's not just his defense, I believe he coasts on offense at times too. That was a small matter when he could let Goran go to work for awhile but as your primary ballhandler, it's a problem. But the biggest difference is on D, he gets beat regularly when he's back on his heels trying to pace himself.

As for whether we can rely on him, who in the world knows? We have zero information about what his knees look like inside and how much damage has been done. Until then, it's just a wild guess. All we really know is that he hasn't been reliable so far.

Well. If we keep Knight and Booker, we should be able to control his minutes.

 

[sunsfan88]

I don't know if it will help his injury issues but I've been harping on controlling his minutes from early on too. And it's not just his defense, I believe he coasts on offense at times too. That was a small matter when he could let Goran go to work for awhile but as your primary ballhandler, it's a problem. But the biggest difference is on D, he gets beat regularly when he's back on his heels trying to pace himself.

As for whether we can rely on him, who in the world knows? We have zero information about what his knees look like inside and how much damage has been done. Until then, it's just a wild guess. All we really know is that he hasn't been reliable so far.

We can hope that Booker can ease some of his ball handling duties. I think Booker has the potential to be a stronger offensive weapon than Dragic was so that could certainly help Bledsoe too.

I think if he can lose some of the bulkiness, that could help his stamina. He doesn't have to lose it completely but if he can tone his body similar to Westbrook strength wise rather than trying to be the "mini LeBron", I think it could help him.

 

[Hoop Head]

I think time will tell. His injuries have been on different knees and each time he chose the longer recovery option that was done to prevent issues down the line. Maybe his knee injuries are behind him at this point? No one will know for certain for another year. If he stays healthy next year, you'd think it's all behind him. If the training staff thinks it's behind him then keep him but if not then trade him while you can get a return and if he has a full season like he performed earlier this year he should be a nice asset. I'd leave it up to the training staff though.

 

[Finito]

Those tiny super athletic guys rarely have long careers he's just to explosive for his own body if that makes sense.

In LA he was hurt in Phoenix he's been hurt its just who he is.

 

[Hoop Head]

I wish there was a 3rd option on the poll, like "Next Season Will Tell" because I think it will be telling whether we as fans should think of Bledsoe & Booker as the backcourt to build on moving forward, as well as the front office. Knight isn't the answer in his absence though.

If he can't stay healthy, he's no more than a backup playing 15-20 minutes a night because he's similar to Amare in that his athletic ability is probably his best trait. Without his explosiveness and speed he's not much of a talent. He can shoot ok but his passing isn't great.

 

[sunsfan88]

I wish there was a 3rd option on the poll, like "Next Season Will Tell" because I think it will be telling whether we as fans should think of Bledsoe & Booker as the backcourt to build on moving forward, as well as the front office. Knight isn't the answer in his absence though.

If he can't stay healthy, he's no more than a backup playing 15-20 minutes a night because he's similar to Amare in that his athletic ability is probably his best trait. Without his explosiveness and speed he's not much of a talent. He can shoot ok but his passing isn't great.

I think the poll was a bad idea on my part, I wish there was a way to just get rid of it altogether. None of us are obviously from the future so there's no way to know, thread was meant to just talk about his reliability going forward and our options if he gets injured and such.

One interesting thing that Finito posted in another thread was that Bledsoe seems to only miss a ton of games every other season so that means he should be able to stay healthy and play most of this season if that continues.

 

[Covert Rain]

I am going to say no based on history. My hope is yes but I am not confident.

 

[leclerc]

Pffft. No. Can't stay healthy.

If we can get a talented PG we should definitely do it. He's bound to get minutes both to keep Bledsoe's minutes down and when Bled's in street clothes.

My biggest wish for the offseason is flipping Knight for something. I have faith that McD will have a good draft, just hoping he agrees that Knight must be moved.

Say if Dunn has a good workout and Boston grabs Chriss (or whoever is their number one guy) I'd be okay with drafting Dunn at #4, if they like him better than Murray and Brown.