How will Eric Bledsoe fit on the Bucks?

The Milwaukee Bucks won the Eric Bledsoe sweepstakes by poaching the exiled guard from the Phoenix Suns at the affordable price of Greg Monroe and a first-round pick.

Bledsoe joins a young Bucks team with concrete expectations of advancing in the playoffs following their first-round failure against the Toronto Raptors last season. Everything flows through budding MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Bledsoe, like everyone else, will be expected to find his offense around him.

How will the Bucks fit Bledsoe into their team?

Who's making the sacrifice?

The immediate question is who starts at point guard: Bledsoe or reigning Rookie of the Year Malcolm Brogdon?

Bledsoe is definitely the more accomplished player, but Brogdon fits perfectly within what the Bucks want out of their supporting pieces around Antetokounmpo. Brogdon is comfortable working off the ball, he's a reliable 3-point shooter, and he's a lanky 6-foot-5 guard who can switch on defense.

Brogdon is averaging 15.5 points and 4.8 assists while hitting 50 percent from the field and 46 percent from deep, with a manageable usage rate of 19.9 percent. He's been great in his role.

Bledsoe brings a different skillset. He's an athletic slasher who needs more touches, but will collapse the paint and create chaos for the defense. He's not a shooter but has made progress in that department, hitting 37 percent on catch-and-shoot threes last season.

Moving Brogdon to the bench could boost an otherwise inert second unit, but another option could be to have Brodgon and Bledsoe share the same backcourt while demoting someone like Tony Snell or Thon Maker. This would give the Bucks three slashing threats between Antetokounmpo, Brodgon, and Bledsoe, while others can capitalize on kickouts.

Too many cooks?

Bledsoe is at his best when he's the primary initiator surrounded by shooters. Getting to the rim is his main focus; playmaking comes second. But there's plenty of mouths to feed in Milwaukee.

Sharing a backcourt with another ball-dominant wing didn't exactly work out for Bledsoe in Phoenix. He initially established some chemistry with Goran Dragic but everyone ended up fighting over the ball after Isaiah Thomas joined the mix.

Milwaukee's challenge will be to determine how it can fit Bledsoe's diet of 16 shots into the 80 shots per game it takes as a team. Antetokounmpo is shooting 21 times and that shouldn't change. Khris Middleton is taking 17 shots and is largely misfiring, so he could take a step back, but Brodgon is shooting 11 per game and could probably use more looks given his efficiency.

Can Bledsoe find his offense around what's already there?

There's also the inevitable return of Jabari Parker once he recovers from ACL surgery. Parker was a 20-point-per-game scorer last season and he'll also need his touches. How will everyone co-exist within the same scheme, and will players accept their roles and make sacrifices?

The best solution would be to stagger Bledsoe and Antetokounmpo's minutes, while also playing with more pace. Having two slashers might be redundant, but having at least one of the two on the floor at all times would be a huge defensive challenge for the opposition, especially when teams go to their bench. Pushing the pace would create more opportunities for the team as a whole and weaponize Milwaukee's athleticism in the fast break.

Can Kidd figure it out?

Bucks head coach Jason Kidd faces the most pressure of all. All the talent is there for Milwaukee to meet its playoff expectations, and if Kidd can't figure out the rotation, someone else will.

Kidd has done wonders in the development of Antetokounmpo, but that hasn't made him immune to biting criticism from Bucks fans who bristle at his stagnant offense. Milwaukee ranks bottom-five in passes per game and bottom-10 in pace, while running the fifth-most post-ups. None of that screams modern basketball, even if the Bucks still rank 10th in offensive rating thanks to Antetokounmpo's singular brilliance.

Nothing is easy in Kidd's system. Antetokounmpo exhausts himself every night trying to create for his own shot, and while having Bledsoe share the load would help, a more innovative system with more ball movement would allow everyone to thrive.

But is Kidd the one to make that happen? Milwaukee has never finished higher than 19th in passes per game in four seasons under Kidd, and it's ranked bottom-10 in pace for the last three years. Kidd would have to change a lot, and he better do it soon.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)