A quick look at the role that new member of the Atlanta Hawks, Allen Crabbe, will play in his first season with the team in 2019-20.
The Atlanta Hawks obtained Allen Crabbe in the terrific deal that sent Taurean Prince to the Brooklyn Nets for two future first-round draft picks, one of which was included in the Hawks’ move to #4 overall in the 2019 NBA Draft – where they took De’Andre Hunter.
While Crabbe only has one year left on his deal with the Nets, making him attractive trade bait at the deadline, the Hawks will actually need Crabbe’s shoot-first, ask-questions-later approach on the offensive end due to a lack of shooters on the second unit.
Crabbe will surely play heavy minutes for the Hawks off the bench, as shooting always tends to scale well to almost any team, and Atlanta is no exception. With players such as Evan Turner, DeAndre’ Bembry, Damian Jones and Jabari Parker expected to play heavy minutes off the bench, Crabbe might sometimes be the only good three-point shooter on the court – meaning the importance of his spacing will be magnified.
According to Cleaning the Glass, 69 percent of Crabbe’s shot attempts last year with Brooklyn came from downtown, which put Crabbe in the 93rd percentile among wings for three-point attempt rate. Prior to last year, Crabbe’s first year on the Nets featured impressive numbers across the board due to his strong outside shooting.
Once again per Cleaning the Glass, Crabbe in 2017-18 produced career-highs in team points added per 100 possession with +4.0. He also had an efficiency differential of +5.6, meaning the Nets outscored opponents by 5.6 points per 100 possessions when Crabbe was on the court.
That season, 63 percent of Crabbe’s shots came from downtown and he scored 114.1 points per shot attempt per 100 possessions, which was in the 76th percentile among wings – an excellent clip for a player that simply serves as a catch-and-shoot threat.
Let’s hope Crabbe matches some of his past shooting exploits this season in Atlanta in order to help buoy the team in the short-term and up his trade value in the long-term.