JULY 6: A month after it was agreed upon, the Nets have officially traded Crabbe to the Hawks along with the No. 17 pick (Nickeil Alexander-Walker) and a lottery-protected first-round pick in exchange for Prince and the Hawks’ 2021 second-rounder, according to press releases from both teams.
Brooklyn will, of course, use its cap room to sign Irving and Durant.
JUNE 6: The Nets and Hawks have agreed to a trade that will send Allen Crabbe, the No. 17 pick in the 2019 draft, and a lottery-protected 2020 first-round pick to Atlanta in exchange for Taurean Prince and a 2021 second-round pick, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter links).
The move will allow the Nets to clear more than $17MM from their books for the 2019/20 season by swapping Crabbe’s expiring $18.5MM deal for Prince’s ($3.48MM) and clearing the cap hold for the No. 17 pick. That will put Brooklyn on track to enter the offseason with more than $47MM in cap space. The Nets will now have a clearer path to creating two maximum-salary cap slots if they’re willing to renounce D’Angelo Russell‘s cap hold.
[RELATED: Latest On D’Angelo Russell]
The fact that the Nets were willing to agree to move Crabbe so early in the offseason signals that they have big plans for that extra cap room, which is particularly intriguing given the recent rumors linking Kyrie Irving to Brooklyn. According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), Irving is “serious” about the Nets, and Brooklyn is looking to beat out the Knicks and the rest of the NBA for top free agents this summer.
If Russell is renounced, the Nets would have enough cap space for Irving and another maximum-salary free agent, unless that player has 10+ years of NBA experience (like Kevin Durant). In that scenario, the club would have to make one more modest cost-cutting move.
Besides creating extra cap flexibility, the Nets also pick up a solid young wing with three-and-D potential in Prince. The 25-year-old has averaged 13.9 PPG, 4.3 RPG, and 2.4 APG with a .431/.387/.834 shooting line in 137 games (29.3 MPG) over the last two seasons in Atlanta. He’s extension-eligible this offseason and will be a restricted free agent in 2020 if he doesn’t get a new deal.
From the Hawks’ perspective, acquiring Crabbe in exchange for Prince and their 2021 second-round pick will allow them to pick up two extra first-round selections, which could be used to add two more young prospects to their core or could be dangled in subsequent trade discussions.
Atlanta is now armed with three top-20 picks in the 2019 draft (Nos. 8, 10, and 17). There have been rumors that the Hawks have explored the idea of packaging their two top-10 picks to move up — adding the No. 17 selection to the mix should give the club more leverage in those discussions.
Meanwhile, the on-court impact of swapping out Prince for Crabbe shouldn’t be significant, as they play fairly similar roles. While Crabbe’s lucrative contract isn’t team-friendly, he has still been a very good three-point shooter in recent years, posting a .396 3PT% since signing his four-year deal in 2016, and his deal will expire after the 2019/20 season.
The Hawks’ cap room for 2019 will be cut nearly in half by the deal, but the team still projects to have about $23-25MM in space.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN.com observes (via Twitter), the two teams won’t be able to complete the trade until July, since the Hawks won’t have the cap room necessary to absorb Crabbe’s contract until the new league year begins.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Wowza
and so it begins…
DLO is the point guard that Booker wants
They would be nasty in az
Except they couldn’t stop my grandma from getting to the paint
Why would anyone want to stop your grandma? That would just be mean.
In further news, Schlenk did not get much for Taurean Prince.
You sure about that? It’s understandable for Brooklyn, but this is an absolute no-brainer for the Hawks.
They’re paying much more for Crabbe than Prince, but they’re similar players and they don’t need that cap flexibility yet anyway. Then they’re getting two first rounders for their troubles.
You’re correct, I read it wrong. (I took “the No.17 pick” as a skimmable description of Crabbe, not as an addition in a list. I guess I was blown away by the trade!)
Funny about the Nets, they finally have their own r1 but promptly move it. But a great move if they land two top FAs, esp KI/KD.
I don’t ‘like’ either Irving or Russell, but Irving is a much better investment, and a good fit with Dins. He will be able to relax & do his thing in that pairing.
And the one next year too assuming they return to the playoffs, but this part of a real plan as opposed to the deal with the Celtics. As a Net fan, I still have PTSD with regard to this kind of move, but this is rational. Personally, I’d prefer D’lo to Kyrie but if Kyrie brings a healthy Durant (again PTSD as a Mets fan), I’m all for it. D’lo brought the Nets to the dance with his play this year and I’d like to see him stay but I’ll understand if it doesn’t happen.
Hawks got the 8th, 10th, and 17th picks now? Wondering if they aren’t going to try and trade up or make other moves.
Lakers would give them 4 in a heartbeat if pelicans liked those 3
Brooklyn wants “ Top free agents” why would they then want Cryrie? What a cancer and egomaniac.
Because the man can play.
And really, do we actually know that he was the cancer and not players who aren’t that great but felt entitled? Two sides to every story.
The team didn’t have any issues the year before when everyone picked up the slack while he was out…maybe he’s not a cancer but certainly he has been a distraction now in two different locations
Kyrie wasn’t a cancer nor a distraction in Cleveland. He was unhappy but never did it effect the club house. That’s why it was such a shock to everyone when it was leaked that he wanted to be traded. When asked, no one on the team knew Kyrie was unhappy. As much as I hated to see him shake things up like that, he did it the right way. He went to management the year BEFORE (after winning the Finals) and somehow it was leaked when he repeated his desire to leave the following year. The team went to 4 finals with him so it obviously didn’t effect their play.
Now I hate the world we live in where narratives can be created by the media and we just swallow everything they say. It’s quite possible that there was a contingent of young players on the team that resented Kyrie and perhaps, were more concerned with THEIR own future than the betterment of the team. Rozier made it clear that he was concerned with getting a big contract and playing second fiddle to Kyrie hurt his chances. Also, you can say that others (Tatum, Brown) may have had resentment towards Hayward too. Now Kyrie may lack the metal to be a leader of a young team and he is NOT the most adept at handling the media but it doesn’t mean HE was the issue.
On ESPN Rozier said something along the lines of “the coaches treated Hayward and Kyrie as if they were on another level. And that they, the coaches, put the emphasis on the others needing to adjust to the stars and not the stars adjusting their game to the rest of the team. He also made mention about how the coaches had a tough job dealing with a bunch of attitudes and how HE sacrificed the most on the team and no one can say bleep about that. He also said how he is one of the top point guards in the game and maybe he needs a fresh start “whether I’m here or whether I’m gone”.
Does that sound like a player thinking of the team or of himself? In no way shape or form has Rozier shown he’s even a top 10 PG in the league. I don’t even think he’s a top 5 PG available in this upcoming FA class (in no particular order, Irving, Kemba, Russell, Brogdon and maybe Rubio). It’s stupid to think the coaches would sign Hayward and trade assets for Kyrie and NOT try and build the team around those two doing what they do best. Just because the Celtics played well in the playoffs w/o Kyrie doesn’t mean they are better w/o him. With a healthy Kyrie who knows what they would’ve done vs the Cavs. Who were the exceptional guards he went up against vs Cavs? George Hill? What did Rozier do as a starter in that series? The counting numbers look good. 14/5/6 but his shooting percentages were trash. 38%/26%/80%.
Kyrie has some blame as he’s just not the guy to be a demonstrative leader the way Magic and LBJ are. He’s more of a leader by example guy like MJ and Kobe. Kyrie is mercurial. Sometime a weirdo individual. That’s why he apologized to LBJ because he finally understood what he probably put LBJ thru as a young player who wanted his shine.
So I say ALL that (brevity isn’t my strong suit) to say that it appears the Celtics had a nucleus of eager to succeed youngsters who rallied together during that season and into that playoff run w/o Kyrie and Hayward and when both returned healthy the two vets took minutes away from Rozier, Tatum and Brown and likely those kids weren’t exactly adept at hiding their disdain for losing PT fresh off of what they thought was a coming of age moment in the ECF vs the Cavs w/o both of those guys. They are all alpha males but nowhere near as accomplished as the two all-stars they acquired. Frazier has done nothing to convince anyone that he deserved to be a starting PG. Also, those players may have been upset at losing IT and Crowder as they were key vets there during their rookie year.
It might be a moot point because Kyrie appears to be leaving anyway, but I bet if Ainge had his way he would keep Kyrie and build the team around him and trade Rozier and others for more picks.
ok
If he did itd be very un-ainge like. Trying to jump start the rebuild by signing Heyward and trading for Irving was a mistake, to double down on a guy after a postseason like that would be stupid without another top 20 player in tow.
Irving couldn’t have been the sole cause of their locker room issues, it’s a team sport and it takes two to socialize. But roziers off-season exclaimations only stand out because he was largely quiet in a reduced role. Hes quick on the draw, but to the extent where if he was the cause, wed see it.
Brown and Tatum definitely griped to some extent, but that’s because the guy they signed to max money was rehabbing slowly and taking minutes as an albatross. They didn’t help their own case by treading water statistically, but they went into the season knowing itd be a minutes jam, but winning would ease over rough spots. Younger players have a right to gripe, they feel like they’ve earned their place on the team, while watching heyward get handed minutes coming back from injury simply due to his contract. Meanwhile irving, while atleast productive, isn’t so productive it masks said issues, and lacks clear leadership to boot.
Heyward is a problem in General for the team, given his contract and production (prob good in the locker room idk), Irving was not the likely sole issue in the locker room, and played up to career norms. But oh does he fit the role of scape goat so well especially after being the perceived sole issue in cleveland. That coupled with you not actually wanting to be here and not elevating your game to accommodate the teams struggles and its just too easy to blame him and not the guys who will still be here. We’ll see if the Celtics are better or worse without Irving, walker will replace his production, the team otherwise will mostly be the same. Lets see if they add by subtracting.
Nets love to 86 those 1st rounders
Lol wow, even with kyrie and say jimmy butler or another star they still arent that great….i can definitely see suns going hard at russell to pair with booker.
Except they couldn’t stop Chris’s grandma from getting to the paint
Nets gm showing again how he’s the best in the league. The lack of assets he’s had since taking over and somehow not being a bottom 5 team shows what a great gm he is
Can someone please tell me how the Nets can trade their #1 pick in consecutive seasons? I thought the Stepien Rule prohibited that. Thanks!
Pick can’t be formalized until July. So the Nets just make the pick that the Hawks want
Also, don’t they still have #27?
Not sure about the specifics of that rule but they could trade the #27th pick because it came from another team.
It only requires they don’t go without a 1st in two future drafts. They’re picking in the next future draft, 2019 (at 27), so they don’t have to have one in 2020.
Everyone else in the thread covered this pretty well, but for completion’s sake:
– The Stepien rule prohibits teams from making a trade that risks leaving them without a first-round pick in two consecutive future drafts.
– Since this trade won’t be officially finalized until July, the 2019 draft isn’t taken into account since it won’t be a “future” draft by that point. The Nets will lose their 2020 pick but still have the 2021 one.
– Even if the two teams made the deal now (which can’t happen, but hypothetically…), it would be allowed, since the Nets still have the No. 27 pick this year. In that scenario, they wouldn’t be able to subsequently trade that No. 27 pick without acquiring a 2019 or 2020 first-rounder in return.
Stepien rule doesn’t count prior year’s picks. So if the nets own their 2020 pick, they could trade their 2019 pick.
Will The Nets ever learn. But Good for them if they Get KI and KD. Will KI Leave that Celtic Money on the Table.
Prince fills a real need as a big athletic wing / combo F. They weren’t getting anything like him at #17. Like LeVert (who’s really their best player), he is 3 years into his RSC. This suggests they’ll be looking to use that cap space for final pieces this summer.
Hawks continue to go their own way. Multiple 1st’s in this draft isn’t what most teams are looking for, so, yeah, trading up is the thing to do, but it requires another team to value volume (over quality) in a draft with little quality after the top 3.
I think the only teams complaining about the depth after the top 3 are the teams that just missed out on the top 3. There’s a drop off from the top 3 to the top 5-6 and then another drop off to the rest of the first round, but it’s still a relatively deep class. At that point, it’s better to have more picks and give yourself more chances to get a good player (you’re getting three chances at a contributor or one chance at a little better of a player).
It’s pretty much a crapshoot after the first few picks anyway, especially since the best player on both of the teams in the ECF was picked in the middle of the first round.
It’s a “relatively deep class” ? Every draft analyst I’ve read for over a year thinks the opposite (weakest class since 1 and done started). A very weak HS class in 2018 was aggravated by injuries and disappointing FR seasons.
It’s always good to have picks, and it’s certainly not a science, but it’s not a crap shoot either. If you’re right, then Atlanta won’t try and trade 2 for 1 to move up. In a crap shoot, you’re better off rolling the dice twice vs once.
Maybe “deep” wasn’t necessarily the right word, but I see a few solid contributors outside of the lottery, and that’s about the best you can hope for.
Also, I said it’s a crapshoot “after the first few picks” so let me re-emphasize that. For every Kawhi or Giannis, there’s a Royce White. You might as well have more chances, unless you’re convinced you’re getting a stud, which is why Atlanta is trying to move up.
It’s also a crapshoot during the top 5 picks. For every superstar, there is an Anthony Bennett or a Dragan Bender. Phoenix had two top 8 picks just three years ago and neither is on the team now. Of the top 3 picks, it is almost statistically inevitable that at least one of them will flop in the pros.
You are correct that having more chances means you have a better chance at finding a gem. But it also means more guaranteed salaries for those that don’t hit.
DXC…every year they say that….haven’t really heard it as much this year
No, in fact, “they” rarely say it, and never in the one and done era with the kind of unanimity. This evaluation isn’t just of NBA draft people. It goes back to the class’ junior year of HS. If you heard that this class is historically weak, then you haven’t been listening.
I disagree with the notion that this draft is weak after the top 3. Maybe what they mean is that there may not be any “sure things” after the top 3 but I still think there’s plenty of star potential in this draft.
The 2011 draft wasn’t see as a good one but Kemba, Klay, Kawhi, Tobias, Butler, Vucevic and IT were all drafted at #9 and later.
No, “they mean” it’s a weak draft. You’re free to disagree obviously. 2011 was not considered a weak draft.
Can you source the weak-draft stance? Google sux anymore.
Dude…
Bleacher Report: “The 2011 NBA Draft class is shaping up to be one of the poorest in recent
memory. In fact, it has the potential to go down as one of the worst of all time”.
SBNation: “Two years is still a little early to make definitive decisions about the quality of a draft, but the 2011 draft could have something to teach us in 2013. That year’s draft, which was conducted in the shadow of the lockout, was seen then as one of the shallowest in modern memory. That’s what happens when so many top players decide to stay in school rather than risk entering the NBA in the midst of a labor dispute”.
The Big lead: “The 2011 NBA draft is a weak one. There doesn’t appear to be a transcendent, franchise player in the mold of LeBron James (2003), Dwight Howard (2004), Kevin Durant (2007), Derrick Rose (2008) or Blake Griffin (2009). There is very little depth – if any – outside of the Top 10. It probably will be worse than the 2006 draft, a clunker that only produced Rajon Rondo, Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and Rudy Gay. For this reason, a lot of NBA teams are unloading their 2011 draft picks.”
Chris Palmer, ESPN The Magazine: “Although many fans didn’t recognize the names or faces of some of the NBA’s newest players, a ton of talent walked across that stage Thursday night. People went in calling it one of the weakest drafts in history, but I came away thinking it was one of the most intriguing drafts I’d seen”.
SI “Is this a weak draft? NBA scouts and GMs are fond of saying so. Their uncertainty about nearly everyone other than Duke’s Kyrie Irving is why so many picks from No. 2 on down have been floated on the trade market”.
A 2nd SI writer: “weak draft grew weaker when several top prospects stayed in school rather than risk coming out before a lockout. But there’s still enough talent in the class of 2011 to make a few talent evaluators look like geniuses—at least by 2015, when many of these raw prospects will have adapted to the pro game”.
NY Times: “Yet it is impossible to avoid what people are saying. For months, N.B.A. scouts and draft analysts have maligned the 2011 class as weak, unproven, bereft of elite talent and altogether uninspiring.
At least 10 of the nation’s most tantalizing prospects stayed out of this draft, in part because of a threatened labor action. Eight international players, most of them young and unpolished, could be taken in the first round, and perhaps four in the top 15”.
FoxSports: “The 2011 NBA Draft has widely been regarded as a down year for talent, but it offers a chance for GMs to prove themselves, the perfect draft to find that needle in a haystack”.
So yeah, industry experts echoed what they heard from NBA scouts and GMs that the 2011 draft was considered to be a weak one at the time.
The fact that Kemba, Klay, IT, Butler, Tobias and Kawhi were all drafted 9th and after shows that either the GM’s did a poor job of evaluating MANY of the prospects in the draft or all of them were diamonds in the rough. But just because people SAY this is a weak draft doesn’t mean that smart GMs won’t be able to identify some future stars. I think this draft is chock full of potential all-stars beyond the top 3. Reddish, Hunter, Culver, White, Bol and Garland in the top 15 and some sleepers in the 20-35 range too. And I think teams will be more likely to take intriguing freshman and start them in the D league to develop their first year or two rather than sitting them on the end of the bench their 1st year.
If Caris LeVert was the Nets best player before they signed KD and Kyrie, there’s no way that they should be expected to improve on their 42-40 record given how overrated Kyrie with his inability to play defense and Durant’s absence for the entire season. Even when the aging KD joins the team in the fall of 2020, they won’t be anything close to a real contender. Even with their weak eastern conference schedule.
I think a good use of Atlanta’s cap space would be to sign Willie Cauley-Stein. He is young enough to be similar to the current core and still has a bit of upside. Most importantly, he could fill the middle which is Atlanta’s current weak spot. A team of Young, Huerter, Crabbe, Collins, WCS with their three rookies on the bench could contend for a playoff spot in the East. At the very least, they could show a marked improvement over this season.
WCS is Robin Lopez v2.0. Not sure he warrants a big contract or the years.
Somebody is going to get it. You might as well give it to a position of need. Plus, with this team, the #5 might not need to be much more than a young Robin Lopez.
Despite missing on Doncic, the Hawks’ rebuilding has been textbook. They didn’t mess around when the Horford, Millsap, Teague team kept falling short. Brought the house down, got picks, ate contracts, drafted well, and then played the kids, giving them freedom (Hi, Tom Thibodeau). This is yet another very smart move, they didn’t look completely sold on Taurean, and they were gonna pick a couple of wings in this draft regardless (Culver, Reddish, Hunter, Little?), so moving Prince before having to pay him while getting back 2 extra first rounders is just brilliant. They don’t care about cap space right now, and they shouldn’t. Just keep developing the kids and further on the road they’ll land a big fish in FA, so watch out for the Hawks in a couple of years. They may even compete for a playoff spot next season, and Collins could be an All Star in the East.
What a great move by the Nets.
I’d love to see them pick up Kyrie and KD this summer.
It would be especially sweet to get the star player from Boston after all those years of suffering from that terrible Billy King trade.
Even if the Nets cant sign anyone of importance with that cap room they opened, they added the 3 and D wing they badly needed, and added toughness they also needed. I was a fan of Taurean Prince and his fit with Atlanta, but obviously it doesnt hurt them to take on Crabbe, and they add that extra pick for potential trades, or they could be interested in the multiple wing pieces available in that mid-late lotteryl/right outside the lottery
If Russell is renounced… Sixers need a new game plan. Gotta make a max offer. Wanted him over Jah from day 1, even tho I still think Jah could be a Boozer/Gooden+ player.
Still wouldn’t work with Jimmy if they renounced everyone and cut Simmons. He’d have to agree to take less than max but take a 5th yr. I would want Jimmy and DLo. Even if he is dumb AF for the weed thing.