NBA Rumors: Eric Bledsoe wants max contract in free agency

The Phoenix Suns are looking at ways to find the missing piece they needed this season to get over the hump and make the postseason. To their credit, this was supposed to be a season that ended with a high lottery pick for the Suns but instead it took until the second to last day of the season for them to get bounced from postseason contention.

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As a result, the Suns are heading into the 2014 offseason with a lot of swagger, as they’re a nearly complete team that seems on the cusp of something special. Still, they have decisions that will need to be made and there may need to be some money spent to make sure a setback doesn’t occur.

The biggest free agent the Suns will be targeting is one of their own — Eric Bledsoe. According to Marc J. Spears from Yahoo! Sports, it’s going to take a max deal to get Bledsoe to stay in Phoenix beyond this offseason.

This is something we’ve known for some time, but it’s just now starting to settle in as a reality. There has long been talk of the Suns possibly needing to offer a max deal to Bledsoe and teams like the Lakers and others have been rumored to want to offer him as much as they can in his restricted free agency.

Phoenix would then have to match a max offer, but they could just offer him that right off the bat and avoid all of the ensuing drama. It’s a big decision but the Suns will need to decide if Bledsoe is worth a max deal or if letting other teams fire offers his way is the wiser way of doing things.