Allen Crabbe isn’t going anywhere after all.
After the Brooklyn Nets tendered the 24-year-old restricted free agent a four-year, $75 million offer sheet, the value of which will exceed $80 million if he hits certain incentives, it seemed like a real possibility that he would be leaving the Portland Trail Blazers.
Sure, the Blazers have cap space. But they already handed $70 million to Evan Turner. And while he doesn’t replace Crabbe’s shooting, the idea that they would continue investing in a roster that made a surprise second-round playoff appearance felt weird.
Alas, the Blazers have decided to match, according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
The Portland Trail Blazers have matched Allen Crabbe's four-year, $75M offer sheet with Brooklyn, league source tells @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) July 10, 2016
In case you don’t trust Woj, which is crazy, Crabbe confirmed the news on Twitter:
RIP CITY!
— Allen Crabbe (@allencrabbe) July 10, 2016
This is a big deal.
The Blazers now have three players on contracts of $70 million or more: Crabbe, Turner and…Damian Lillard, whose extension from last summer kicks in for the 2016-17 season. Even in the new salary cap climate, this shows that the Blazers believe in their ability to make noise in the Western Conference now, or that they’re certain the current core is the one worth pushing forward with.
We’ll know for sure how committed the Blazers are to this nucleus in the coming weeks and months. Meyers Leonard and Moe Harkless, both of whom are restricted free agents, are still floating around the open market, and C.J. McCollum is extension eligible ahead of next summer, when he, too, is slated for restricted free agency.
If the Blazers re-up two of those players, it’ll show that this is the foundation around which they’re prepared to rise or fall.
