The Nets signed Allen Crabbe to a four-year offer sheet worth nearly $75 million last summer. The Trail Blazers matched, preventing Brooklyn from acquiring him for a year.
Now, a little more than a year later, the Nets are finally getting him.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:
Portland has traded Allen Crabbe to Brooklyn for Andrew Nicholson, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 25, 2017
Portland will waive and stretch Nicholson's contract, league source tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 25, 2017
Sources: Crabbe waiving trade kicker. Also: Portland, Nets had to wait one year from matching of Crabbe's $75M offer sheet to execute deal. https://t.co/1gmXcLPYTF
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 25, 2017
Crabbe is still owed $56,332,500 – a sizable amount for a one-dimensional 3-point shooter. The Trail Blazers obviously regret matching his deal considering they’re already dumping him for another bad contract and didn’t win a single playoff game in the interim.
But Portland is undoing that mistake in a big way.
The Trail Blazers are in line to save $54,330,160 this season with this trade – $37,842,090 in luxury tax and $16,488,070 in player salary. They’ll still have to pay Andrew Nicholson $2,844,430 each of the next seven years – no small thing – but they’re at least reducing their burden for each of the next three years, when major luxury-tax issues still loom. They can deal with 2024 later.
Competing for the playoffs, Portland will miss Crabbe off the bench. But there are reasons he was expandable.
He doesn’t create enough offense for himself or others, and his defense is passable at best (and not versatile). Crabbe’s 3-point percentage (44%) is impressive, but it’s in part due to his high selectivity. He launches 3s at a middling rate for a guard, and 77% of his long-distance attempts were classified as open or wide open by NBA.com.
Simply, Crabbe must do more to get open and/or hoist more shots that reduce his efficiency but boost’s his team’s. He could also lock in a little more defensively.
Still, Crabbe is a helpful player already. He’s also just 25, so he can improve. The Nets obviously like him.
And he apparently likes Brooklyn, waiving his $5,674,875 trade bonus to facilitate a deal. As controversy swirls over Kyrie Irving requesting a trade from one of the NBA’s best teams, it’s interesting Crabbe would leave money on the table to go from a playoff team to a cellar-dweller. The Nets offer a bigger city, probably more playing time and definitely a front office that values him. So, it’s a reasonable choice, but also one that raises eyebrows.
