Eric Bledsoe started the first 22 games for the Los Angeles Clippers this year before head coach Ty Lue decided to switch things up. Just before the team’s December 3 game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Lue rolled out a starting lineup featuring Reggie Jackson, Paul George, Marcus Morris, Serge Ibaka, and Ivica Zubac, electing to bring Bledsoe in off the bench.
The move seems to have worked; The Clips handed the Lakers a 119-115 loss, and after the game, Lue explained his reasoning for making the move.
“I like what he did,” Lue said about Bledsoe’s performance against the Lakers, via The Athletic’s Law Murray. “Without him being in that starting lineup, we wouldn’t be number two defensively because every single night he took a challenge for PG. He guarded the best player. PG was allowed to rest, and he didn’t have to guard the best player and Bled did that starting the games for us defensively.”
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Lue: Bledsoe Did Nothing Wrong, Move Was Based on Strategy
Lue further explained his decision to bring Bledsoe in to lead the second team.
“I think with the second unit, when he had the ball in his hands, when he checks in the game from start to finish, I think it’s good for him,” the Clips coach added. “He made some good plays for us tonight and he was big for us in that seven-game win streak, he was big for us all season as far as defensively and setting the tone. It wasn’t nothing he did wrong. It was just something I think to make him more comfortable; it was the best move for the team.”
Bledsoe is averaging 9.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 27.1 minutes of action per game so far this season. He hasn’t averaged less than 12.2 points a game in each of his last eight seasons, so his scoring is down a bit, but Lue says the move isn’t based on performance.
Bledsoe Could Wind Up Playing Crucial Role Coming Off Clippers Bench
Lue noted last month but it was taking Bledsoe a little bit of time to get acclimated in his second stint with the team.
“I mean, when we get him to say two words, that means he’s getting comfortable,” Lue said in November, per Murray. “To come in and try and fit in and do the right things, you know, it’s tough. So like, we know Bled. … he’s a great player, we understand what he can do. But the thing that never wavered was his defense and how he had the hardest assignment every single night that we played, and the offense was gonna come. And you see he’s getting more and more comfortable.”
The soon-to-be 32-year-old guard will have to get comfortable in his new role coming off the bench, and he could very well play a huge role for the Clippers as the season progresses. For his part, Bledsoe is fine leading the second unit, and he doesn’t seem worried his team’s 12-12 start.
“We might be a quiet team,” Bledsoe told The Athletic. “But we’ll be able to compete.”
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Clippers HC Ty Lue Responds to Sitting Former Starter