Milwaukee Bucks: 3 goals for Eric Bledsoe in 2018-19
2. Bring his best consistently
Another ephemeral goal that is not easily defined, this one highlights that Bledsoe’s inconsistency is not relegated to defense. Offensively, his impact on the game waxed and waned last season, which made him a difficult player to rely on night in and night out.
Every player has good games interspersed with bad ones. Unless your name is LeBron James, there will be “off nights” for every player. The problem with Bledsoe is that the frequency of his off nights were high, and they were often very off.
Bledsoe scored at least 20 points for the Bucks 28 times last season, third on the team behind Khris Middleton (44) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (64). Yet on nine occasions, he put up just single-digit scoring, or about once every three times he dropped 20+ points (32 percent). Middleton provided single-digit scoring just 18 percent of the time, and Antetokounmpo failed to score double-digit points just once all season.
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More than simple production, it was efficiency that doomed the Bucks when Bledsoe was off as well. The point guard shot less than 40 percent on 10 or more attempts 21 times last season, or roughly one-third of his games for the Bucks. He would continue shooting, continue missing, and took those shots away from more efficient shooters.
At the same time, Bledsoe’s assists dropped in Milwaukee to 5.0 per game, the lowest amount since his days backing up Chris Paul with the Los Angeles Clippers. He assisted on just 24.7 percent of his teammates’ baskets last season, in the 34th percentile league-wide among point guards, per Cleaning the Glass. Just two seasons ago Bledsoe ranked in the 92nd percentile in that statistic.
Bledsoe needs to lean the other way when his shot is not falling, using his speed to penetrate the defense and open up opportunities for others.
Instead, more often than not, he responded to poor shooting nights by shooting more, and to positive shooting nights by shooting more too. Despite going from the top offensive option in Phoenix the past few seasons to the third option in Milwaukee, his usage rate remained largely unchanged, and in fact, his 26 percent usage outpaced the more efficient Middleton.
Bledsoe is talented and has a lot to offer the Bucks, and when he gets going he can take over a game. What the Bucks need is for him to find a better balance between scoring and playmaking, an adjustment that will still help his team when the ball is not going in for him.