Hornacek on Bledsoe: "Just a matter of time" before Suns reach deal

The free agency frenzy has begun to slow to a crawl, and Eric Bledsoe apparently has yet to receive a serious offer from anyone. Aside from a rumor that quickly evaporated about the Milwaukee Bucks preparing an offer sheet, Bledsoe's name has been surprisingly scarce among the daily onslaught of free agency rumors.

When fellow restricted free agents Gordon Hayward and Chandler Parsons received max offer sheets, logically one would have assumed Bledsoe to be the next in line. Yet nothing has happened, and suddenly it's looking like he may have to settle for something closer to the 4 years, $48 million that Kyle Lowry accepted to stay in Toronto.

Perhaps it can be chalked up to his'injury history, or saturation in the point guard market. Either way, the Suns are in no rush and seem to be just fine and dandy with Bledsoe taking as much time as he needs to test the waters, as expressed by Jeff Hornacek to KTAR's Doug and Wolf this morning.

"I think Eric and his people are just trying to find a place that gives him an offer sheet to see what we'll do with it," Hornacek said. "I think we're committed to do anything we can to keep him so I think it's probably just a matter of time until we work out a deal with him."

Clearly the Suns aren't bidding against themselves and haven't offered him a max deal, which they shouldn't. They're going to let the market dictate Bledsoe's price, and so far it's working in their favor.

Most of his potential suitors have already spent their big money and are now moving on to filling out their bench and role players. For Bledsoe, this could very well mean that the contract he ends up signing won't be quite what he had hoped for.

The more time that passes, the greater the chances that Bledsoe will lock up with the Suns -- possibly for cheaper than we thought.

More Hornacek

A few other quotes by Hornacek that you might find interesting.

When discussing Isaiah, more stuff came out about Markieff starting: "We're going to have to move Markieff (Morris) to starting now, so that's going to give other guys like Marcus (Morris) more time at the 4 with the second group, so we just felt that someone who puts on a little more pressure scoring-wise can open up some of those other guys."

And then later in the interview, he backtracked a bit: "When I say Markieff will be the starter, we're still at the point in the season where anyone can earn it."

On Isaiah: "He's going to help with the leadership that we maybe lost with Channing, so he's going to be a second voice."

On the development of Miles Plumlee: "The biggest thing for Miles is we want him to make a 15-foot jumpshot and not hesitate, so that teams have to honor that."

My take: If Bledsoe is in purple and orange for less than the max and Miles Plumlee is draining 15-footers without hesitation, color me one happy Suns fan.