Report: Despite plenty of interest, Clippers not likely to trade Bledsoe at deadline

Eric Bledsoe is in a funk on the court. And it’s hard to blame him — the Clippers reserve guard would start for half the teams in the league (at least) but he is buried behind Chris Paul among the starters then off the bench Jamal Crawford is the primary scorer and ball handler.

Bledsoe has played brilliantly for much of the season — he’s got a PER of 19.7 — but in his last 10 games he is shooting just 32.7 percent, scoring just 5.1 points a game, and with that his minutes are dropping. Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro has the deepest team in the NBA and the lack of run seems to wearing on Bledsoe.

There are plenty of teams that would like to help out and take Bledsoe off the Clippers hands.

He has been a hot name among teams looking to trade for a guard. But don’t bet on it happening, reports Marc Stein of ESPN:

External interest in Eric Bledsoe is predictably high no matter what the Clippers do to dissuade it, thanks to Bledsoe’s consistently noticeable impact in limited minutes off the bench as a defensive disruptor and tempo-changer alongside NBA Sixth Man Award top contender Jamal Crawford.

Yet sources briefed on L.A.’s thinking insist that the Clippers don’t want to even begin to contemplate the idea of trading Bledsoe until they know that Chris Paul is signed and sealed for the long term. So don’t expect Bledsoe to be in play before the Feb. 21 trade deadline.

In case you forgot, Chris Paul is a free agent next summer. He can walk from the Clippers. And if you think he couldn’t you haven’t followed the history of the Clippers and their owner. Nothing is a lock.

So this is the prudent move. Hold on to Bledsoe now, he could be very valuable as the season wears on and in the playoffs.

But this is Del Negro’s challenge — to keep a bunch of guys who are getting less run than they would elsewhere focused and interested. It’s easy to keep it together when you win 17 in a row. But the team will stumble as all teams do, and that is when Del Negro will be challenged.