NBA Trade Rumors: Knicks, Bucks and Nuggets 'In the Mix' for Eric Bledsoe Deal
Sometime in the near future, Eric Bledsoe is sure to get his wish and be traded from the Phoenix Suns. All that's left is figuring out the destination and timing.
Chris Haynes of ESPN.com reported the New York Knicks, Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets are "in the mix" to add Bledsoe. However, there have been several teams who have reached out since this fiasco began with a tweet from a "hair salon" Sunday afternoon.
Bledsoe's "I don't wanna be here" tweet has nearly 100,000 likes and more than 45,000 retweets as of writing. It is the most blatant declaration of a player's desire to leave his current team on social media...or just a dude complaining about being stuck at a hair salon with his girlfriend.
Suns general manager Ryan McDonough told reporters:
"He said he was at a hair salon. It wasn't about the Suns or anything related to the Suns. He said he was at a hair salon with his girl and that he didn't wanna be there anymore.
"I don't believe that to be true. We thought about it and talked about it with [owner] Robert [Sarver] and my staff and Coach Jay Triano and his staff and decided it's what's best for the organization."
Perhaps McDonough and all of the entire universe is wrong. Maybe Bledsoe was chilling in an uncomfortable chair for two hours, watching his partner get her hair highlighted and had enough.
It's plaus—OK, let's stop the charade. This is a person who could not have cared less giving the worst possible excuse just to avoid any potential fines or suspension from the team or the NBA. Public trade demands are barred by the NBA; it's possible his agent (Rich Paul) fed him a story to use that's hard to refute. So the Suns sent him home, and now we wait for what's next.
McDonough, for his part, has gone scorched-earth on Paul and those around Bledsoe. He said Tuesday on Arizona Sports radio 98.7 (h/t Chris Haynes of ESPN.com):
"I was certainly surprised by it and disappointed by it. I think Eric's a good person. I think he's unfortunately gotten some bad advice and is listening to the wrong people. I think generally, any time you sign a contract, it doesn't only work one way. It works both ways, and for a guy with years on his contract to say or intimate he didn't want to be here anymore, I didn't find that to be appropriate, and I think if he says he wants to be a leader, that's the opposite of what a leader does and the opposite of what leadership is. So I think that's all I'm going to say about that."
McDonough said no timetable exists for the team to make a trade:
"If you can imagine, my phone was ringing a lot yesterday. The ideal time to get a deal done is whenever the best offer presents itself. So we'd be fine doing it sooner rather than later. At the same time, he's under contract for this year plus next year. We sent him away from the team to eliminate that distraction. So we're willing to do a deal, we're open to do a deal whenever the best offer presents itself."
