Milwaukee Bucks: Preseason Injury in the Past for Eric Bledsoe

After a disappointing end to the Milwaukee Bucks’ season in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, all eyes are on the team’s “Big Three” to lead Milwaukee to the next level and reach the NBA Finals.

Of course one of the members of that trio is starting point guard Eric Bledsoe. The veteran guard, who is entering his 10th season in the NBA, signed a 4-year, $70-million extension last March, meaning he will be a big part of helping push the Milwaukee Bucks to the ultimate goal, at least for the foreseeable future.

Though he had a strong start to last season’s playoff run, Bledsoe struggled some in the Eastern Conference series against the Raptors. He scored double digits in points just twice, averaging 10.2 points per game for the series, while shooting just 29.4 percent from the floor. As a result, he was under some scrutiny going in to this season.

The beginning of the ’19-’20 season for Bledsoe didn’t look much more impressive the way his playoffs ended. In the first four games for the Bucks this year, Bledsoe averaged 10.5 points per game on 36.4 percent from the field, knocking down just 3 of 14 threes over that span. Things just didn’t quite click early for him.

But there might have been a reason for that. In the second preseason game of the season against the Jazz, Bledsoe would end up leaving the game early due to injury. Two days later it was announced that Bledsoe would miss two to three weeks after fracturing some cartilage in his ribs, an injury he could return from once the pain subsided.

That injury was announced on October 11th, which meant even the most generous view of the timeline would’ve had Bledsoe returning on the 25th, the day after Milwaukee’s season opener against the Rockets. Yet, two days before the game in Houston, it was announced that Bledsoe would, in fact, be starting in game number one for the Bucks.

So it’s understandable, then, that Bledsoe’s numbers were down to start the season. Besides having less than a game and a half of preseason action to get prepared for the season, it would stand to reason that Bledsoe’s rib injury may have still been affecting him early in the year especially when you consider that he returned earlier than the original timeline.

Regardless of what caused Bledsoe’s slow start, his last six games have looked much more like what fans were hoping to see. Bledsoe is averaging 20.2 points per game over those six games with 20+ point efforts in his last four. His field goal percentage jumped to 51.1 percent over that stretch which also saw him shoot a much more respectable 33.3 percent from three.

A similar jump in performance has been seen when Bledsoe attacks the rim. While he was driving plenty often, taking 65.9 percent of his shots within 10 feet of the rim in his first four games, he was shooting just 44.8 percent within that range, possibly showing that he wasn’t fully comfortable with his drives and, thus, not fully effective.

Lately, however, Bledsoe has been way more effective at the rim. Though only 43.3 percent of his shots have come from that 10-foot range over the last six games, he’s shooting a blazing 76.9 percent down low in that time. With both his 2-point and 3-point shooting spiking as the season has progressed, it makes sense that the Bucks are 5-1 over their last six games as opposed to 2-2 over the first four while Bledsoe was still shaking off the rust.

With news coming out on Monday that Khris Middleton will miss some time with his own injury, Bledsoe will be one of many Bucks who will be expected to step up over the next few weeks. Even keeping at his current pace would help a lot in that regard.

Though his preseason injury likely contributed to a slow start to the season, Bledsoe now appears to be back on track. The Bucks will need that if they want this season to end with an appearance in the NBA Finals.