Los Angeles Clippers: A Look Back At The Eric Bledsoe Trade

The Los Angeles Clippers will face off against the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night and will once again see Eric Bledsoe, one of the league’s best point guards.

Bledsoe has played so well over the past few seasons with the Suns that it’s become easy to forget that his professional career got its start with the Clippers back in 2010. Bledsoe spent his rookie season playing mostly behind Baron Davis and later Mo Williams, after Davis was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Williams at midseason.

Bledsoe averaged 8.9 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game in the 25 starts Bledsoe received as a rookie, showcasing his athletic ability as well as a tendency to stuff the stat sheet. His season averages of 6.7 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 3.6 assists earned him a spot on the NBA All-Rookie second team.

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Things were supposed to be looking up for Bledsoe and his future with the Clippers, but a few offseason opportunities to improve the roster proved to jeopardize Bledsoe’s future with the team. The Clippers claimed veteran Chauncey Billups off waivers when he was released via the amnesty clause from the New York Knicks.

Days after signing Billups, the Clippers made the blockbuster trade that brought Chris Paul to Los Angeles. Williams remained with the Clippers as well. If you’re counting at home, the Clippers in 2011-12 had a collection of point guards for the ages with Paul, Billups, Williams, and Bledsoe.

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The Clippers transitioned from a team on the rise and a focus on player development to a team focused on winning now and Bledsoe got the short end of the stick. After playing 22.7 minutes per game and making 81 appearances as a rookie, Bledsoe’s playing time shrunk to only 40 appearances and only 11.6 minutes a night in his sophomore campaign.

Bledsoe’s lack of playing time resulted in him being sent down to the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA Developmental League for a couple games. As a mid-first-round pick who showed potential as a rookie, Bledsoe became an obvious trade piece for a Clippers team that was heavy on guards and light at other roster spots, especially on the wing.

Instead of dealing Bledsoe, the Clippers chose to deal Williams in a four-team trade that resulted in the Clippers receiving Lamar Odom. Billups tore his Achilles in February of the previous season and missed the start of the 2012-13 season and injuries throughout the season limited him to only 22 games.

Bledsoe took full advantage and proved that he would eventually be too good to be left playing reserve minutes. Bledsoe’s playing time went back up to 20.4 minutes per game and upped his averages to 8.5 points, three rebounds, and 3.1 assists while shooting 39.7 percent on three-pointers.

In the process, Bledsoe became a favorite of hardcore NBA fans for his outstanding athletic ability that earned him the nickname “Mini-LeBron.” Per 36 minutes, Bledsoe was averaging 14.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 2.5 blocks, and an outstanding-for-his-size 1.3 blocks.

As well as Bledsoe was playing, there haven’t been many point guards in NBA history worthy of taking minutes away from Paul. Paul was a free agent in the summer of 2013 and when he chose to re-sign with Los Angeles, it made Bledsoe very expendable.

Bledsoe was entering the final year of his rookie deal and had flashed enough skill to garner a hefty contract when he became a free agent. The Clippers had just signed Paul to a max contract and would soon have to trade Bledsoe or pay up in the next off-season for a backup.

Fresh off of agreeing to terms on a new contract for Paul, the Clippers sent Bledsoe away along with Caron Butler in a three-team, sign-and-trade deal in which the Clippers signed free agent J.J. Redick from the Milwaukee Bucks and also acquired Jared Dudley from Phoenix.

The Clippers received a couple wings that they were in need of but had to part ways with a valuable asset in Bledsoe and a solid veteran in Butler to receive them.

Redick has been a great addition for the Clippers and his three full seasons with the Clippers have been the most productive seasons of his career. He’s one of the league’s elite shooters and his shooting ability has been an integral part of the Clippers core.

The threat of Redick’s shooting and ability to run off of picks from Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan have gone underappreciated by most fans but not unnoticed by Doc Rivers, who members inside the Clippers organization believe would’ve chosen to resign from the Clippers if Donald Sterling chose to veto the trade as he initially planned to do with the reasoning that $7 million was “too much to pay for a white player,” according to a source.

On the other hand, Dudley’s stint with the Clippers fell short of expectations. After three straight seasons of double-digit points per game, Dudley’s scoring went down to only 6.9 points per game while shooting the worst field goal percentage of his career and worst three-point shooting season since his rookie season in 2007-08.

Dudley lost his starting gig to Matt Barnes midway through the season and eventually played poor enough to be dropped out of the playing rotation. Dudley was traded after the season to the Bucks along with a conditional 2017 first-round pick for Carlos Delfino and Miroslav Raduljica, both of whom never would appear in a game for the Clippers.

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While Redick has been great and a necessary cog for the Clippers, there’s not much of a debate that the Clippers gave away the most talent in that fateful deal that send Bledsoe away. After being dealt away, Bledsoe has been a borderline All-Star with the Suns and probably would’ve made an All-Star team by now if not for the star-studded group of guards in the Western Conference.

Bledsoe averaged 17.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 5.5 assists with the Suns in his debut season. Bledsoe’s strong play in his debut season played a huge role in that year’s Suns team crushing lottery expectations on their way to a 48-win season that somehow landed them just outside of a playoff berth.

Bledsoe was subsequently compensated in restricted free agency with a five-year, $70 million contract.

Since then, the Suns have had some problems replicating the magic of their 2013-14 season, but it has been to no fault of Bledsoe. He has maintained his play that has landed him on the next tier of point guards after the elite guys are mentioned.

The logic behind trading Bledsoe is understandable, but unfortunate for the Clippers. Having talent like Paul and Bledsoe at the same position is a problem that every team would love to have, but it was only a matter of time before Bledsoe played himself out of the price range for the Clippers.

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The Clippers have been just fine, winning 56 or more games in every season since trading Bledsoe, but it’s still worth wondering if the Clippers made the right move in trading Bledsoe.