Why it works
As previously mentioned, the Suns don’t really need Bledsoe. Bayless is a downgrade, but he gives them another stopgap veteran who can start in the short-term, and it’s not like this team is trying to win anyway.
They get a little worse right now, but Bayless’s contract is cheaper than Bledsoe’s and also comes off the books in two years. In addition to the cap savings, the Suns also get two high second-rounders that they could always sell off Bryan Colangelo style for more money, or package to trade up for another first. More draft assets are never a problem.
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For the Philadelphia 76ers, we don’t need the draft assets. We have 16 picks over the next four years, 11 of which are second-rounders. We can afford to lose two.
Bledsoe’s contract is $5-6 million more than Bayless’s, but we have the cap space for it. We’re a team that actually does have a chance at making the playoffs, so it makes more sense for us to acquire the better player.
On that note, Bledsoe is definitely an upgrade over Bayless, especially defensively. Right now we don’t have anyone that can stop skilled opposing guards. As a result we’ve been giving up a lot of points, so he would shore up our weakest area.
TL;DR – our team gets better, especially on defense, while the Suns get a bit of cap relief and more tanking.
Why it doesn’t work
To be honest, Phoenix isn’t getting much out of this. Eric Bledsoe is a pretty decent starting point guard, so just getting a stopgap and two second-rounders isn’t much of a haul.
They could theoretically package those second-rounders to move up for a first, but not a lot of teams will make that trade. Just in the last draft, we had to use a future first to move up for Anzejs Pasecniks, despite having four second-rounders in the draft.
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The Suns, as previously mentioned, have a lot of young guys. Talent is their problem, not depth. They don’t really need extra role players – they need extra starters. Second-rounders don’t have much value for them, and they could get a first-rounder theoretically for Bledsoe, but the 76ers don’t really have a good one to give up.
It might not make too much sense for the 76ers either. Bledsoe is a better player, but I’m not totally sure he fits better.
He’d improve the 76ers defensively and is a better offensive player but he might actually make us worse on offense. He is a much more ball-dominant player than Bayless, which wouldn’t work well on our team.
Our offense gives the ball to Simmons and Embiid a lot, so every possession Bledsoe has the ball in his hands is one where it’s not in the hands of Simmons or Embiid. One indication of Bledsoe’s usage is the fact that Bledsoe’s career usage rate is 23.8 percent compared to Bayless’s 20.7 percent.
Even out of the possessions Bayless does use, many more of them come on catch-and-shoot threes. Bayless is a career 37 percent shooter from deep and has gotten progressively better, whereas Bledsoe has plateaued around 33 percent. And on this team, we need shooters around Simmons and Embiid.
Not even to mention the fact that Bledsoe’s contract would make it harder to renegotiate and extend Robert Covington.
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Overall, I don’t think the trade makes sense for either side, but it’s still worth thinking about.