The Bucks welcomed their newest addition Friday when Eric Bledsoe joined the team in San Antonio and the starting lineup against the Spurs and on the surface anyway, this could work.
Yes, there’s no guarantee Bledsoe will mesh with the current MVP favorite or run the offense the way Jason Kidd would like, but it seems like a good match because Kidd wasted no time bumping Malcolm Brogdon from the starting lineup. Both players will likely split minutes in the short term; Kidd and the Bucks haven’t soured on Brogdon but he isn’t the level of athlete as Bledsoe.
It was also the first deal made by new GM Jon Horst, who took the job months ago when John Hammond left for the Orlando Magic, and
Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel did a Q-and-A with Horst about Bledsoe and the new possibilities:
Why was this the right deal and why was this the right time?
“I think this was the right deal because we were able to add someone that’s dynamic, another dynamic player that can score the ball, that can play-make for others, that has defensive toughness, athleticism and strength. And we were able to do that without effectively giving up one of the pieces of our core, as we’ve talked about publicly. Also, the Bucks DNA thing we’ve talked about is real. He is a high-character guy, highly talented, he has positional versatility, he can play on the ball and off the ball and he’s got great toughness.”
With the way things ended for Bledsoe in Phoenix, is that something that bothered you or gave you any pause?
“No, because with everything we do we do our due diligence. In surveying the league and getting that information, to a person everyone thinks very highly of Eric. I think in this business sometimes the business aspect of it takes over. … I think he was in a tough situation. We had a franchise that was trying to go in one direction, a player that wanted to be competitive in a different direction and those two things pulled at each other and it kind of resulted in what we all saw. That was of very little consideration for us, really all through this.”
Does Bledsoe fit more than Monroe in the way the modern NBA looks and feels and in a way that makes the Bucks a more competitive team in the modern NBA?
“I don’t buy into that. Greg Monroe’s a really good player. Greg was really productive for us on the floor, he’s a great person off the floor. He helped us have a lot of success here and we’re thankful for him and the things that he did for us in helping a young team grow. I think players like Greg Monroe have a role in this NBA without a doubt. So I don’t really buy into that. I do think Eric fits into a style of play that maybe we want to try to be a little bit quicker, up-tempo, more aggressive defensively and offensively and I think he can help us do that. I don’t think Greg is a dying breed or anything like that.”
How long have you and the franchise been interested in Bledsoe? It seems like the Bucks have been tied to him in rumors for years.
“We’re interested in all the players that are dynamic and have toughness and athleticism, speed and quickness, high character and Eric is one of the guys we identified that for, you’re right, a number of years. He’s a guy that we’ve looked at, talked about, targeted amongst others and we were able to get a deal that makes sense for us.”
