The Portland Trailblazers paid Allen Crabbe a lot of money. He went from getting paid under a million dollars per year to raking in 18.5 million. With that kind of increase in compensation, they were probably expecting at least a slight bump in production. Not so. The Crabbey Patty is doing almost exactly the same stuff he did last year. Better than a total regression (DAMMIT MILES), but not what was hoped for. He’s getting slightly more minutes, taking slightly fewer shots, has a higher three-point percentage but a lower two-point percentage, and it all adds up to 10.2 ppg this year vs. 10.3 ppg last year.
That first number will change after tonight. 30 points on 12 of 15 shooting, including a perfect 5 threes on 5 attempts. I would’ve liked to see some more attempts (or any attempts) from him in the overtimes, see if he can get 40 maybe, but 30 is pretty good. I’ll take 30 on half as many attempts any day.
I can’t help but wonder what he’d be doing on the Nets right now. The Blazers aren’t so bad that they need Crabbe to shoot tons of shots, whereas the Nets would probably let him shoot as much as he wanted. Would he average 15? 20? That would be so sweet. Him averaging that many points would somewhat justify his mondo contract. Joe Harris is scoring almost as much as Crabbe, and he sucks bad, so that’s not even all that unreasonable. Crap. Why do I torture myself like this? Why do I always have to imagine perfect scenarios for my favorite role-players, knowing that they will never be attained?