Eric Bledsoe
FREE AGENT

Player Facts

Height: 6'1"
Weight: 214lbs.

Wingspan: 6'7.5"

Date of Birth: Dec. 9, 1989
College Experience: Kentucky (1 year)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 2

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 9
Physical Strength: 8
Positional Size: 5
Positional Wingspan: 8
Paint Scoring: 8
Midrange Scoring: 6
Three-Point Scoring: 5
Dribbling: 8
Passing: 6
Perimeter Defense: 10
Interior Defense: 6
Rebounding: 6

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JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Supreme Slashing

> Paint Finishing

> Pick-and-Roll Play + Passing

> Cunning Cutting

> High-End Perimeter Defense

> Defensive Versatility + Forcing Turnovers

> Shooting Woes

> Substandard Facilitation Skills

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

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*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

Bledsoe is a defensive-minded point guard who makes life difficult for opponents. He makes up for a lack of traditional point guard size with superb athletic tools. His lengthy 6'7.5" wingspan is something he fully makes use of on the floor though.

Eric is one of the strongest, most physical perimeter players in the league. In addition to his physicality, Bledsoe brings remarkable speed, agility, balance, and first-step burst to his squad.

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Supreme Slashing

On the offensive side, Eric stays within his role admirably. He is aware of his strengths and challenges, picking his spots for when to attack. This has allowed him to consistently put up efficient two-point shooting numbers from season to season. 2021-2022 had him just under 10 dribble drives per contest.

Bledsoe's bread-and-butter as a scorer is his slashing ability. His "Mini LeBron" nickname was born out of Eric's tendency to attack the hole with astounding strength and explosiveness. He doesn't over-complicate his dribble moves when looking to break down the defense. Rather, Eric leans on what is an explosive first step.

Bledsoe commonly uses his burst to get a step on his man. Then, he uses his strong frame to firmly keep his man riding his hip as he maintains the angle. Eric can drive right or left, stopping and spinning back to his dominant right hand when doing the latter.

He's especially lethal when a switch tasks a big with guarding him in space. Slower, heftier frontcourt players that are uncomfortable defending on the perimeter will get blown by with relative ease.

The Kentucky product is well-suited athletically to repeatedly burn switches out on the perimeter. 2019-2020 saw Eric take 11.8 drives per game which yielded 6.7 points on average. His 2020-2021 figure of 9.3 slashes per night outpaced players like Jamal Murray, CJ McCollum, and Norman Powell.

Paint Finishing

Eric caps off his ferocious drives with well-shielded left-hand and right-hand finishes. Bledsoe is also diverse here in that he can finish above or below the rim. He is very comfortable driving along the baseline and finishing with a reverse layup, perpetually embracing contact at the hoop.

His low center of gravity and muscular 214-pound frame allow Eric to initiate contact and maintain his balance. As a result, he compiles a solid number of and-one's considering he's undersized. He's an elite finisher for his size with that 6'7.5" wingspan bolstering his ability to finish over the top of people.

In 2019-2020, he finished 66.9% of his restricted area shot attempts. He was more efficient here than James Harden, Domantas Sabonis, and Bradley Beal. Bledsoe is a textbook slasher at guard, and he has the formidable interior percentages to back it up.

Pick-and-Roll Play + Passing

Bledsoe isn't involved in nearly as many pick-and-rolls as fellow lead guards like Damian Lillard and Kemba Walker. However, he still excels in this area, primarily as a scorer. Eric's explosiveness plays when he rejects the screen with a crossover or splits the defense. He also has a solid in-between game brimming with floaters and runners.

The shifty Eric likes taking a small hop backward when driving on the backpedaling big man. This serves as a hesitation that causes plotting bigs to rigidly straighten up a little bit.

He proceeds to utilize his low center of gravity to zip by and prove that the "low man wins" principle rings true. Bledsoe was in the 86th percentile for scoring as the pick-and-roll initiator in 2018-2019, and the 83rd in 2019-2020.

He's a solid passer at the point guard slot. Undoubtedly, Eric is far from the playmaking maestros like Chris Paul and Luka Doncic. However, he has some strong points within his passing arsenal such as a skillful drive-and-kick game. He maintains good vision and passing accuracy as he barrels downhill at high speeds.

Cunning Cutting

Bledsoe has spent countless possessions alongside one or more other offensive weapons. He has responded by becoming a prolific cutter with a combination of outstanding timing and speed.

Eric can even catch and finish lobs as a 6'1" backdoor cutter. In 2018-2019, he was in the 84th percentile for his scoring off cuts. His lone season as a Pelican saw him finish up in the 78th percentile scoring on his basket cuts.

High-End Perimeter Defense

Eric is one of the premier stoppers at the point guard position. With the number of star-caliber guards in the NBA, it is vital to have a defensive dynamo who can pressure the ball like Eric. He hounds opposing ball-handlers by being physical, tenacious, and having tremendous lateral quickness.

He is one of the best point of attack defenders in the league. He works tirelessly to get around screens and provide a quality shot contest on pull-up jumpers.

Bledsoe rarely gives up on a play even after the most bruising screens. He does well to attach himself to the ball-handler preluding the pick. The 6-foot-1 guard maintains connectivity with his assignment commendably.

In 2018-2019, he recorded 469 possessions defending pick-and-roll ball-handlers, first in the league (in the top ten again the next two seasons). Here, he limited opponents to only 0.87 points per possession. For comparison, defensive workhorses Patrick Beverley and Jimmy Butler conceded more points here.

Eric is also a pesky disruptor of dribble handoff sets. He does his best to get an arm in, ideally getting a piece of the basketball. 2018-2019 saw him place in the 79th percentile for his defensive work against dribble hand-offs.

Bledsoe's high motor on defense also produces good closeouts and sharp rotations. In the 2019-2020 season, he remarkably caused shooters to drop 3.6% from their three-point average when he defended them. Moreover, Eric consistently expends extra energy to deny his man and blow up plays designed to get them the ball.

Defensive Versatility + Forcing Turnovers

Eric can serviceably switch on to bigger players and still be disruptive. His fast hands, bulk, and low center of mass equip him to check many types of opponents. As one of the strongest guards in the league, he is passable in the post defensively.

Eric rounds out his stacked defensive profile with wise anticipation skills. He is able to force turnovers and compile steals by being such a zippy and active defender.

In transition, Bledsoe is effective thanks to speed and strong interior finishing ability. Eric, although undersized, is a bullet train in the open court. Just over a fifth (20.6%) of his 2019-2020 scoring output was fast break points. He also deposits points as the leader of some delayed transition chances.

WEAKNESSES

Shooting Woes

Bledsoe has never shown that he can be a dependable high-volume shooter as a guard. It is very difficult to be an impactful scoring guard with such a shaky jump shot. Eric has a streaky shot with a slow release, allowing for defenders to go under ball screens without getting burned.

Eric's shooting struggles are still present when spotting up. While some mediocre off-the-dribble shooters become solid in spot-up scenarios, Bledsoe still has issues.

In 2018-2019 he shot 29.3% on catch-and-shoot threes and dropped to 26.4% in 2019-2020. Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo gave Eric a steady diet of open outside looks but clearly he failed to capitalize. He shot a still-weak sub-35% mark on spot-up treys in New Orleans (2020-2021) next to guys like Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram.

Substandard Facilitation Skills

His playmaking shortcomings are magnified given his positional expectations. Bledsoe has never finished higher than fifteenth in the NBA for assists per game in a given season.

In 2018-2019, 31 players were ahead of him on the assist points created per game leaderboard. His 4.6 dimes per-36 minutes in 2020-2021 was mediocre at best. Simply put, Eric is more of a shooting guard trapped in a point guard's body.

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bacon
Beacon Bacon

Bledsoe spent a year under John Calipari at Kentucky on a loaded team including future NBA players DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall, and Patrick Patterson