This offseason, the Portland Trail Blazers parted ways with Allen Crabbe. Was he the right player to move for extra cap space?
Allen Crabbe averaged 10.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, 0.8 steals and 1.4 three-pointers in 26 minutes during his third year in Portland. Apparently, this play off the bench earned him a four-year, $75 million contract. Crabbe became the 31st best-paid NBA player last season.
With the new contract, he barely improved in 2016-2017. AC posted 10.7 points, 2.9 rebounds, 0.7 steals and 1.7 three-pointers in 29 minutes (three more than before).
Ready for a slight change in scenery, the Blazers dumped Allen Crabbe’s salary with the Brooklyn Nets for Andrew Nicholson in return. Nicholson was waived and his salary stretched over the next couple years.
This trade showed Portland’s mistake in signing Crabbe to so much money, especially after overpaying Evan Turner in free agency as well.
But of those two guards, which would have been better to move?
Case for keeping Allen Crabbe
Three-point shooting
Last season, Allen Crabbe ranked third on the Blazers for most three-pointers per game. He shot the best percentage from deep on the team as well.
So far with Brooklyn, he’s shooting a poorly from the perimeter (38.9%), but still hits 2.5 threes per contest.
Without Crabbe this year, Portland hits one less three-pointer per game despite shooting with the same accuracy (37%).
Outside of Pat Connaughton and Shabazz Napier, the Blazers bench has no three-point threats. I wrote about why Pat is the most important reserve because of this.
Still having Crabbe makes for a more offensively dangerous bench. He’d be in the same role as Connaughton, but shooting better from deep.
Case for keeping Evan Turner
Leadership
Evan Turner is in his second year with Portland and ninth in the league. This experience combined with playing for four different teams is valuable in Portland. The sixth youngest team in the NBA needs veteran leadership.
However, several blown fourth quarter leads this season show the continued absence of a veteran capable of stepping up late in the game. Even with ET playing more, he lacks the leadership the team needs.
Take, for example, Wednesday night’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs.
Turner had the ball with under ten seconds remaining. Instead of deferring to Damian Lillard or CJ McCollum, he failed to post-up, dribbled in circles, and ended up losing the ball out of bounds with three seconds left. Those three seconds resulted in CJ throwing up a desperation attempt from deep and the Blazers losing, 93-91.
Dribbling
Another benefit of keeping Evan Turner is his point guard abilities. After Lillard and McCollum, ET is the next option for dribbling the ball up the court.
Terry Stotts likes to keep one or both of them on the court at all times. Sometimes, however, the offense runs better with either Dame or CJ playing off the ball. ET then handles point guard duties.
Without him, Shabazz Napier would be doing the same job. Napier records less assists than Evan Turner along with a higher assist/turnover ratio.
Verdict
Both of these guards hurt Portland’s cap space. Therefore, looking solely at what they’d each contribute to the current team, I believe Allen Crabbe would have been more beneficial to keep.
The Blazers offense is hurting this year. No reserve can pop off the bench and catch fire from three like Crabbe did last year. The team is missing that extra threat from outside.
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Additionally, Evan Turner isn’t providing the leadership he should. Messing up a late game situation versus San Antonio and playing overall inefficient basketball makes the guard expendable.
Hindsight vision is 20/20, and unfortunately the Blazers need to work with what they have. Maybe moving Turner out of the starting lineup will fix some of the recent problems.