Sources: Trail Blazers trade Allen Crabbe to Nets for Andrew Nicholson
The Portland Trail Blazers are trading guard Allen Crabbe to the Brooklyn Nets, league sources told ESPN.
Brooklyn signed Crabbe to a four-year, $75 million offer sheet a year ago. Portland matched the sheet and, under league rules, needed to wait one full year to include Crabbe into a deal with the Nets.
The Nets will send forward Andrew Nicholson to the Blazers, league sources said. Portland will likely waive the remainder of the three years, $20 million on Nicholson's contract, and use the stretch provision to ease the luxury tax hit on the Blazers' cap, league sources said.
Portland generates a $12.9 million trade exception in the deal, too. The exception expires in one year.
The Blazers have $110 million in salary committed to the 2018-19 season, with center Jusuf Nurkic eligible for his rookie extension before the season.
Crabbe waived a trade kicker that would have paid him $5.6 million over the next two years, league sources said. He wanted to sign with the Nets a year ago for the chance to be a starter, and he now gets a bigger role in a Brooklyn backcourt that includes D'Angelo Russell and Jeremy Lin. The Nets have been eager to construct a roster that includes developing young players, and Crabbe fits the model.
Crabbe, 25, was a third guard behind Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum for the Blazers. A 2014 second-round pick, Crabbe blossomed into a good young shooting guard. He averaged 10.7 points and 44 percent shooting on 3-pointers in 28 minutes a game in 2017-18.
Nicholson signed a four-year, $26 million free-agent deal with theWashington Wizardsone year ago but now has been traded twice -- to the Nets and Blazers -- and will become an unrestricted free agent after clearing waivers.
The Orlando Magicselected him 19th overall in the 2012 NBA draft, and he spent his first four NBA seasons there. Nicholson played collegiately at St. Bonaventure.
