Eric Bledsoe reportedly is unhappy with how contract talks are going with the Phoenix Suns, and it's understandable. It's just one of the many burdens of going through restricted NBA free agency, and the Suns are using to their leverage in order to keep Bledsoe for a steal deal.
Phoenix reportedly offered Bledsoe a four-year, $48 million deal, but they declined. According to CSN Northwest, contract talks are "very far apart" and that the relationship between the two sides is on schedule to be "ruined."
According to league sources, an “ominous development” has arisen with sides still “very far apart” in contract negotiations. It has even escalated to the point where the “relationship is on the express lane to being ruined,” a source with knowledge of the situation informed CSNNW.com.
The Suns offered Bledsoe a four-year, $48 million deal with declining salaries each year, two sources said. That proposal was quickly turned down. Bledsoe’s camp is putting a max price tag on the player Suns Head Coach Jeff Hornacek called “a Top-10 player in the NBA in coming years”, another source said.
However, the effort by the Suns to undermine Bledsoe’s market is what has angered Bledsoe and his reps and led to a standoff in which the relationship is now on the verge of being irreparable, we’re told.
Other teams that are/were in the process of dealing with their own restricted free agents (Utah, Detroit, Houston) chose not to use the public scare tactics this summer, another factor that has Bledsoe feeling chilly at the thought of a return to the desert, sources say.
The contract talks between Bledsoe and the Suns have dragged pretty far, so we'll just have to see how it all ends.
