If it seems odd that two of the league's brightest young talents are still available in free agency, that's because it is.
Both Eric Bledsoe and Greg Monroe are restricted free agents, and that's something that hasn't worked in their favor this offseason.
Bledsoe and Monroe have both had to sit on the sidelines this offseason while they watched their fellow draft classmates get paid. After the market dried up and all the money went elsewhere, Bledsoe and Monroe now face the unenviable position of negotiating a long-term contract with almost no leverage whatsoever.
Here's Dan Devine of Yahoo Sports with a good breakdown of how restricted free agency works, and how sometimes it doesn't:
As BDL Editor Kelly Dwyer wrote in November, restricted free agency exists largely to help front-office decision-makers, allowing them to pass on bidding against themselves for players near the end of their rookie-scale contracts in favor of exploring the league-wide market for a player's services before making a long-term decision.
This can come back to bit ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by D.J. Foster