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When Allen Crabbe got to New York in July after the Nets acquired him in exchange for Andrew Nicholson, he immediately got to work. Two months prior, he had undergone foot surgery, and had only returned to regularly scheduled programming weeks before. He had a job to do and a model to emulate: Kyle Korver.
Now, 25, Crabbe, was entering his fifth NBA season, his first with a new organization. Of course, the marriage had nearly begun the summer of 2016 when the California native agreed to sign a lofty Nets offer sheet of $75 million over four years.
But alas, it was destiny. The Blazers matched back then, giving him a deal worth nearly the same as Evan Turner’s to play the same position. It was crazy. Crabbe spent a year in Portland, where little changed. Now, the 6’6” sniper has finally arrived a bit later, but in a greater version of the new pace-and-space era of Brooklyn basketball. And he’s still pursuing Korver.
Last season, Crabbe was the second most accurate three-point shooter in the NBA ... at 44.4% ... out of the 450 best basketball players in the world. Who was the No. 1 downtown sniper on planet earth? Korver at 45.1 percent. He thinks he can surpass Korver, with the aid of the former Hawks’ coach.
“I think (the style of play) is going to fit me well. I look at coach Atkinson when he was even in Atlanta and I saw how they used Kyle Korver. He was very successful in that scheme,” Crabbe pointed out. “I think it’s kind of similar in that aspect.”
Last season, the Nets hoisted 31.6 three-point shots per game, fourth most in the NBA. However, at 33.8 percent, they drilled three-point attempts at the league’s fifth worst clip.
In spite of last season’s unfavorable metrics, the 2013 second round pick raved about coach Atkinson’s system, citing how it generally suits Crabbe’s skillset, and others on the new look roster as well.
“I think it will be perfect,” he said confidently. “We’ll get up and down, and like you said, coach Atkinson loves the three ball. That’s what I do. Just being able to be in that system, have plays ran for you – they say they don’t care, if you have an open three shoot it. That kind of fast pace, you look forward to stuff like that.
“I know I’ll be able to shoot the ball more – being able to have the ball in my hands a lot more, being in pick-and-roll situations a lot more. Just having bigger opportunities.”
The Nets’ poor success from beyond the arc last season encapsulates the team’s struggles from last season. Good idea, poor execution. Generally, most don’t think the Nets will repeat that same level of misfortune when they won 20 games or the 21 they won the year before.
Although, some Nets, like Jeremy Lin, have mentioned ‘playoffs,’ and a majority of pundits are not leaping to that prediction.
Crabbe acknowledged that while the general consensus is that the Nets will improve, by virtue of the “it can’t get any worse” way of thinking as opposed to the “they actually got better” one. Low expectations don’t bother him.
In fact, the vibe that emanates from the former Blazer is that of quiet confidence... a comforting attitude that says don’t count me out. Like the Nets, he’s regarded as a league-wide afterthought.
“I’ve been in a situation like that in Portland,” Crabbe said, recalling pundits’ predictions ahead of the 2015-16 season, his third in the NBA. “They said we (the Blazers) were going to be second-to-the-worst team. We ended up getting the fifth seed in the West and going to the second round, going against the Warriors. I’ve been here before.”
And of course, the culture (drink!) was a topic of conversation at Media Day, and Crabbe threw in his two cents on the Brooklyn buzzword. He defined culture as “putting the right guys together who are willing to do whatever it takes for this organization.”
“The year that they had last year obviously aren’t the expectations we have this year,” he continued. “We’re going to be better – people already have low expectations of us this year, but that’s good. We’re going to go out there and play with a chip on our shoulder every single night and prove people wrong.”
In other words, watch out, Kyle Korver!