Suns trade Bledsoe for Bucks’ Monroe

MILWAUKEE — Eric Bledsoe will get a fresh start in Milwaukee. The Phoenix Suns get a chance to speed up their rebuilding project.

The Suns traded their disgruntled guard to the Bucks for big man Greg Monroe and two 2018 draft picks on Tuesday, hours before Milwaukee played in Cleveland.

Bledsoe, 27, had not been with the Suns since Oct. 22 when he posted “I Don’t wanna be here” on Twitter, the same day the Suns fired coach Earl Watson. He had been averaging 15.7 points per game, second behind Devin Booker, and was the team’s oncourt leader.

He was sent home by the Suns after the tweet, reducing the team’s leverage because everyone in the league knew Phoenix was trying to trade him. Bledsoe had asked to be traded before the season, Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough has said. The NBA fined the eight-year NBA veteran $10,000 for the tweet.

Bledsoe will take some of the focus off of do-it-all All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is the Bucks’ primary ball-handler. Milwaukee had lost four of its past five games before visiting the Cavaliers, but adding Bledsoe’s scoring ability alongside Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton on a team that also includes rising guard Malcolm Brogdon could help.

“Eric is a dynamic player who brings scoring and toughness to the court while enhancing our young and talented core,” Bucks General Manager Jon Horst said.

Bledsoe averaged more than 20.0 points and 6.0 assists per game in each of the last two seasons with the Suns, including career highs in points (21.1) and assists (6.3) per game last season. Bledsoe spent the past five seasons in Phoenix after his first three years with the Clippers.

Monroe, 27, who joined the team as a free agent in 2015 after five years in Detroit, has been sidelined recently because of a left calf strain. Over three seasons with the Bucks, he averaged 13.3 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists over 165 games.