It was roughly one week after the 2014-15 season ended that Jeff Hornacek noticed the difference in Eric Bledsoe. The Suns’ head coach asked his starting point guard when he would be returning to Phoenix during the offseason.
“I’m not leaving,” Bledsoe answered.
True to his word, the 6-1 playmaker stayed in the Valley. Aside from a trip to support the Suns Summer League team in Las Vegas and a one-week vacation, his offseason took place mostly in the weight room and practice court, which he left only after he had thoroughly and completely exhausted himself.
Jump shots. Weight-lifting. Pick-and-roll timing with young big man Alex Len. Bledsoe didn’t work on one part of his game. He worked on all of it.
“I wanted to take my game to the next level,” he said.
“Eric has been here, before I came and got out there, competing everyday. He’s been out there competing until after pickup games, he’s laying out on the ground because he’s exhausted himself.”
— Tyson Chandler
Bledsoe couldn’t afford to do otherwise. The league is dominated by point guards with few holes in their respective skill sets to the point where only the truly elite are even considered for the midseason All-Star game.
“There’s tons of point guards in this league,” Bledsoe said. “There’s good point guards on bad teams.”
By the end of last season, Bledsoe was tired of 1) only being “good” and 2) his team not being good enough in a brutal Western Conference. Now 25 years old, Bledsoe better understands the need to capitalize on a crowded NBA window.
Rookie guard Devin Booker has already called Bledsoe a “veteran.” It makes Bledsoe, who once looked at All-Star guard Chris Paul under the same light, smile. It also gives him a sharper sense of urgency.
“I’ve been in the league six years,” he said. “That’s a long time for me. It’s gone by fast, too.”
Teammates noticed Bledsoe’s countless hours and voluntary two-a-day practice sessions during the offseason. They joined him far earlier than necessary. Like Hornacek, they also saw a different No. 2.
“Eric has been here, before I came and got out there, competing everyday,” said new teammate Tyson Chandler. “He’s been out there competing until after pickup games, he’s laying out on the ground because he’s exhausted himself.”
Sweat and effort have become the voice Phoenix hoped to hear from its leader-in-waiting. The Alabama native has never been one to give movie-worthy speeches. He still doesn’t. Chandler, the ultimate on-court communicator, says the heightened level of Bledsoe’s physical impact outweighs the verbal.
“You don’t have to be the rah-rah guy or the guy that’s out there talking all the time to be a leader,” Chandler said. “I played with Dirk [Nowitzki] and Dirk rarely talked. He was the type of the guy that pulled you to the side that talked, but clearly he’s one of the greatest of all time and he led our team to a championship. You can lead in different ways. With Bledsoe, it’s all about his effort. He gets out there working hard and everybody sees it.”
P.J. Tucker, who might be the only Sun to talk more than Chandler, agrees.
“He’s never going to talk like me or Tyson,” Tucker said. “He’s gone from eight words to 12 words, but we’ll take it because he’s stepping up. With him, it’s more of the showing, not so much talking about it.”
All-Access: Eric Bledsoe's Workout
When Bledsoe does talk, it’s encouragement to a teammate to push through fatigue and finish a drill. It’s a sharp address during a scrimmage to ensure his team winds up on the winning margin.
There are times when the Suns’ floor leader chooses not to talk, most often because he’s still putting in extra shots while his teammates are already doing their cool-down stretches, as was the case at Day 1 of training camp.
“He’s taken his practice game to a whole different level,” Tucker said.
“You can just tell in the pickup games that he wants to take that next step as a leader,” Hornacek added.
That step will count the most in real games, one complete game at a time. Bledsoe has proven capable on occasion. Against All-Star guard Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder last season, he put up 28 points, 13 rebounds, nine assists and four blocks in an overtime win. Matched up against another All-Star guard in Damian Lillard, Bledsoe amassed 33 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and three steals in just 34 minutes.
“You can see stretches where Eric was dominant for six or seven minutes and then it was just kind of cruise control and then he’d be dominant again,” Hornacek said. “We talked to him about being that dominant person the whole game. He’s worked his tail off this summer to try and do that.”
After the first day of training camp, when told his NBA 2K16 rating was an 82, Bledsoe smiled and said, “That’s progress.”
Odds are Bledsoe is banking on having made even more progress in real life.