Orlando Magic: The pros and cons of going after Eric Bledsoe
By Luke Duffy
Pro: He’s better than the players on this team
The Magic’s surprising start has been made all the sweeter by the fact that they’ve done so without a high level point guard running their team.
Elfrid Payton, whom the team declined to offer an early extension to, making him a restricted free agent next summer, started the season as well as he finished the last.
He’s missed the last few games, however, and D.J. Augustin has come into the starting lineup and performed brilliantly in his place. As great as he has been, we know he will slide back onto the second unit when Payton returns from injury.
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Trading for Bledsoe and putting him into the starting five would give this team more offensive juice than it already has.
Bledsoe is more of a score-first guard, the kind of player the Magic have been lacking in recent seasons. Lazy eye test comparisons would tie him to Kemba Walker of the Charlotte Hornets.
Bledsoe averaged 21.4 points per game on a poor Suns team last season. Augustin has never averaged more than 14.4 per game, and Payton’s career high to date is 12.8.
Bledsoe may only be a career 33.4 percent 3-point shooter, which is not a great number. But it is still better than Payton’s 29.1 percent.
The Magic currently have the second-best offensive rating in the league (110.9 points per 100 possessions), but you’ve got to think that would improve if Bledsoe was added to this team. That’s worth considering.