According to multiple published reports, restricted free agent guard Eric Bledsoe and the Phoenix Suns are said to be making significant progress in renewed contract talks.
Bledsoe’s camp turned down the Suns’ initial offer, and Phoenix had been unwilling to engage in sign-and-trade talks for the explosive 24-year old. Per Yahoo! Sports and the AZ Republic:
Suns general manager Ryan McDonough and Bledsoe’s representatives with Klutch Sports have gathered momentum in discussions over the past two to three days, and Wednesday is expected to be crucial in the push for the sides to finalize a deal, league sources said.
The Suns are believed to have pushed an initial four-year, $48 million offer into the $50 million range, sources said. […] Bledsoe’s agent Rich Paul has been threatening to have his client sign a $3.7 million qualifying offer that would allow Bledsoe to become an unrestricted free agent after this season.
League sources confirmed that there have been renewed contract talks between Suns executives and Bledose’s representatives since the weekend. […] There could be resolution as early as the end of business Wednesday.
Why is this an article? I don’t think anyone thought that they wouldn’t try negotiating again…
I honestly don’t understand why Bledsoe’s party think hes worth so much. He’s never been an all-star, never been all-nba, never made a USA squad, only averaged 60 games per season, never averaged 20ppg, yet he expects to get paid like hes done all of those things. I think any team would be crazy to pay him the max, how good to people think he’s going to be? Steve Francis 2.0?
The p word is working in his favor…Potential.
Cause it got you to click AND comment on it…
looks like Bledsoe’s agent, (or Bledsoe himself) realized how ridiculous they were being….
He had the same surgery Wade had before he came to the NBA. He shaved 5 years off his career, he needs to cash in while he can.
I agree
I thought there would be some new information. The head’s up that the headline provides is the only thing.
this is new information. Bledsoe and the Suns had literally negotiated for 0 minutes and 0 seconds before yesterday.
Suns offered $50 mil and Bledsoe’s camp wanted close to max. Then the whole sign and trade with the T-Wolves offer? They’ve been negotiating.
please stop believing the things Brian Windhorst tells you.
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here is what actually happened.
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Phoenix offered Bledsoe 4 years, $48 million; two days before the draft.
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Bledsoe’s camp didn’t respond for over a month.
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Then they told Phoenix they were seeking the max, and also let word out to the media.
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There was never a single negotiation.
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Minnesota called Phoenix and tried to unload bad salaries to get Bledsoe in a sign and trade. They literally don’t have any money, so they didn’t offer him anything. Not a max, nothing. They can’t. That report is 100% false.
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And yesterday, or Monday, they got together for their very first negotiation of the summer.
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I am 100% positive I am right.
Physically sitting at a table isn’t the only way to negotiate. The Suns offering their deal and Bledsoe’s camp countering what they want is still negotiating…hence them “renewing” contract talks.
they didn’t counter. man, negotiating implicates that there is a discussion.
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not responding directly, not giving a counter offer, is not negotiating.
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there were no negotiations.
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“we will give you this much for this long”
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5 weeks later, someone related to Bledsoe but not him or his agent
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“he will only take this much for this long”
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media reports have the same info from “sources”
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those aren’t negotiations. That’s Bledsoe’s agent over promising his client and then trying to cover up his mistake by playing hard ball and using the media in an attempt to create leverage.
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unless you call someone pulling a fake gun on a convenient store owner and only demanding million dollar bills a negotiation, this wasn’t a negotiation.
Who made the counter offer of saying Bledsoe wants max?
it wasn’t a counter offer. it was like you talking to a small child who wants a cookie, you say,
“i’ll give you a cookie if you finish your broccoli”
then some other person that knows the kid but doesn’t speak on his behalf comes up and just says,
“he’s not going to eat broccoli unless he gets 7 cookies”
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which is probably true. but it doesn’t change anything. all you are doing is telling me what the dumb kid wants, you aren’t trying to compromise, or reach a conclusion, you aren’t even that kid!
if bledsoe signs, and they also pick up the other dragic, that guard rotation is going to be super deep
the other dragic would purely be a d-league player, but yeah they are super deep regardless with Tyler Ennis as also stuck going to the d-league
Some random dude told the Suns that Bledsoe wanted a max contract instead?
But if that person is in Bledsoe’s camp and is speaking what Bledsoe actually wanted, and the other party (the Suns) react accordingly, that’s still negotiations going on between the two parties. Just because his agent wasn’t involved, doesn’t mean that neither side made their wishes and intentions clear to the other.
Do you not know what negotiation means? Is that the problem here? Making demands is not a negotiation. .
If you tell a terrorist to release hostages and they say they want a helicopter and 75 million dollars what is the response? We don’t negotiate with terrorists. .
Bledsoe’s agent Rich Paul had a hostage (Bledsoe), made an unreasonable demand and then no negotiations took place.
Do you not? Again, an NBA player and his agent sitting down with a team at a table to hash out contract details is a negotiation, however, the negotiating has been going on with both parties . Suns started low, Bledsoe’s camp (not his agent but someone who knew the Bledsoe’s intentions) demanded high, they now agreed on something between those two that leaves both parties satisfied, closer to the max money than Phoenix would’ve offered. How the offers were made and the timeline of these events have little to do with the end result. I’d say Bledsoe negotiated the sh*t out of the Suns.
Not only do you not get that there was no negotiations but you also don’t understand who got closer to what they wanted?
Bledsoe got an average of 3.5 million less a year than he was asking for (13.5 million a year as opposed to 17)….the Suns are paying an average of 1.5 million more per year than they initially offered (up to 13.5 mill a year from 12) .
And they did negotiate, for one day. That day ended with Bledsoe signing for a deal more close to what Phoenix originally offered, they just tacked on an extra year.
You just have a much more narrow definition of “negotiation” than I do.
How? They met halfway on annual payments. Suns offered 4 years at $48 million initially. That’s an average of $12 million a year. Rich Homie Paul asked for 5 years 80 million. That’s an average of 16 million a year. They agreed on 70 million over 5 years. That’s an average of $14 million a year.
They compromised evenly on the money, and then gave Bledsoe the extra year of guaranteed money that he wanted. That’s Bledsoe winning.
or the actual definition of “negotiation” ……
“discussion aimed at reaching an agreement”
“discussion” – the action or process of talking about something, typically in order to reach a decision or to exchange ideas.
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to negotiate, you have to actually talk about something. so, by definition, they didn’t negotiate. understand?
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Bledsoe’s “max” salary was 5 years, $84,790,000 —> 84.79 / 5 = $16.96
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but my bad, he got an average of $14 million a year, which is still closer to what Phoenix originally offered him than what he demanded in what were NOT negotiations.