Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that the Portland Trail Blazers dumped Allen Crabbe‘s contract on the Brooklyn Nets.
After giving Allen Crabbe $75 million last summer, the Trail Blazers have traded him to the Brooklyn Nets for Andrew Nicholson, per Woj. The Nets made this deal one year after giving Crabbe that humongous offer sheet that Portland matched.
In his fourth year with Portland, the 25-year-old underperformed compared to the size of his deal. However, he didn’t play terribly. And this transaction is far from a head-scratcher. Crabbe appeared in 79 games with Portland and averaged 10.7 points while shooting 44.4 percent from a three — a clip that was second in the NBA to Kyle Korver (45.1). It was also a major improvement on the 39.3 he shot in 2016, and Crabbe’s catch-and-shoot lethality is perfect for what Brooklyn is trying to do.
Despite finishing sixth in threes made per game last season (10.7), Brooklyn was 26th in percentage with a dreadful 33.8 percent clip. When your offense is so three-heavy, it’s paramount that guys bury triples with regularity. That’s something the Nets lacked, that dead-eye shooter who defenders can’t think about helping off. Now, they have it. And they got Crabbe for almost nothing.
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Nicholson didn’t see the court much after coming over from Washington. The Nets took on his contract to get the 27th overall pick in this year’s draft, which they then flipped for D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov.
Sean Marks has done a tremendous job making lemonade. And the lemons that Billy King left were rotten as can be. They have excellent depth heading into next season, and a majority of their roster is young. If Crabbe and some of the other young players blossom, it’s not far-fetched to see the Nets in the playoffs.
Portland, on the other hand, is hoping that doesn’t happen. If it does, the only thing that would make it sting less is seeing another star player join Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, and the team is trying to shed cap to make that happen.
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