Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports
The NBA season is still almost three months from tipping off the regular season and Phoenix Suns fans can’t wait to watch Eric Bledsoe do his thing.
Considering these fans suffered through a 25-57 season for 2012-13, its hard to blame them in wanting to cling to someone for a source of hope.
Bledsoe is not someone bad to cling to. He’s not exactly the franchise saver. The Suns have some other players, including their top draft choice, Alex Len, for that consideration.
But Bledsoe has plenty of talent waiting to break through now that he’s not in Chris Paul’s shadow with the Clippers, but can instead make the Suns his team and be the one to get the team back to respectability and playoff contention.
Last season, Bledsoe averaged 20.4 minutes per game. That’s a figure that should go up by at least 10 minutes when he plays for the Suns. More minutes will also mean an increase from his averages from last season of 8.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.4 steals per game.
The Suns are expecting Bledsoe to start fulfilling his NBA potential as soon as he begins his first game. He’ll have his ups-and-downs as does any young player in the league. He needs to play effective defense that will help the Suns keep opponents under 100 points and give them a shot to win every game. If Bledsoe can excite the fans with his outside shooting and playmaking, he can also intrigue them with steals and stingy defense.
Bledsoe will be far from perfect. But he’ll obviously be very exciting to watch.
