I’ve always liked Allen “Crabbey Patty” Crabbe’s game. Like a Khris Middleton-lite without the ball-handling skills. He was legit last year in Portland, his jumper was smooth and it was going in all the time, and he was getting paid huge bucks but that was okay because he’d only get better, right?
Wrong. Something happened to him. His jumper is still smooth, but it doesn’t go in nearly as often as it did last year. And, of course, he’s still getting paid 19 million dollars, but now it’s for him to shoot 38 percent from the field instead of whatever sweet stuff he was doing last season. His contract has transitioned from “iffy” to “bad”, and there’s nothing for the Nets to do but wait it out and hope he recovers his lost mojo.
Perhaps tonight will be the start of that recovery. 34 points, a career-high, from everywhere on the court except the free-throw line, this is what the Nets tried to sign up for when they gave him that offer that the Blazers matched, and what they really signed up for when they traded for him. I, for one, hope he continues this. That three-point shot of his is sweet. And he looks like Odell Beckham, but is that dude even relevant anymore?