Milwaukee Bucks: Why the Eric Bledsoe extension was a big mistake

The Milwaukee Bucks gave Eric Bledsoe a four-year extension worth $70 million to be in a role which accentuates his biggest weakness

There are moments in life when one decision prevents an organization from accomplishing its goal. This is the story of the Milwaukee Bucks who gave Eric Bledsoe a four-year extension worth $70 million (per ESPN) even though he is currently in a role which accentuates his biggest weakness.

The Milwaukee Bucks are currently running a system that features some aspects of the LeBron James offense. Giannis dribbles the ball to the 3-point line and analyzes the entire defense. If one of the defenders is sagging off a shooter, he will pass the basketball to the shooter for an open 3-pointer.

On the other hand, if everyone stays home, he will study everything about his defender to determine the next course of action. If the defender decided to sag off of him, Giannis would take the open jumper. But, if the defender played him tight, he will attempt to drive towards the basket for a score, to draw a foul or attract a double team.

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Distance is not the only aspect of the defense that Giannis analyzes as he also pays attention to the size of his defender. If he has a smaller defender, Giannis will back him down into the post to score or throw a cross-court pass to a teammate behind the arc.

The Milwaukee Bucks new offense is forcing some of Giannis’s teammates into new roles. A prime example of this is Eric Bledsoe who is being forced to spend time off the ball in a spot up shooter/ bystander role. Eric is averaging 55.9 touches per game which is 15.9 fewer than last season.

Not only has Eric seen a significant drop in touches but he is taking more 3-point attempts. Bledsoe is currently taking 39.6 percent of his shot attempts from behind the arc which is 3.2 percent more than last season.

Unfortunately, Bledsoe isn’t very good off the ball because he is a below average shooter from behind the arc. In fact, Eric Bledsoe is currently shooting 31.7 percent from behind the arc (making 1.6 3’s in 4.9 attempts)  putting him 3.7 percent below league average.

Eric’s below average shooting is right on par with the rest of his career as he has a career three-point shooting percentage of 33.4 percent (making 1 shot from behind the arc in 3 attempts).

This puts the opposing team in a good position defensively when Bledsoe doesn’t have the ball because they can afford to leave him open to provide help defense elsewhere.

For the Milwaukee Bucks to get maximum value from this extension, they would need to accentuate the strengths of Eric Bledsoe. According to Duncan Smith formerly of Bball Breakdown one of Eric’s strengths is his ability to thrive in pick and roll situations:

"Bledsoe is gifted in the pick and roll as ball handler, scoring .986 points per possession during the 2016-17 season. That placed him in the 88th percentile."

The possible change in offense would relegate Giannis into the role of roll man because he can’t afford to be in the role of spot up shooter/bystander due to his shooting deficiency. In fact, he is shooting 23.4 percent from behind the arc which is 7.3 percent less than last season.

Being a roll man could curtail some of the playmaking opportunities as he would be dependent on Bledsoe to pass him the ball in a timely fashion.

In reality, the team should have let Bledsoe walk and tried to sign Patrick Beverley with the mid-level exception this offseason as he would be a better fit for the system. Patrick has a career 3-point shooting percentage of  37.7 percent (making 1.6 3’s in 4.2 attempts) which is 4.3 percent better than Bledsoe.

The team currently has $3.2 million in cap space with Bledsoe’s new contract ($15.5 million) which makes it harder for them to fill out the 4 roster spots left open. Signing Beverley to the standard  mid level exception ($9.2 million) would have opened up an extra $6. 3 million in cap space for them to spend this offseason.