The Portland Trail Blazers have traded shooting guard Allen Crabbe to the Brooklyn Nets for forward Andrew Nicholson, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojanrowski.
Crabbe will waive his trade kicker to facilitate the exchange. The Blazers are expected to consequently waive and stretch Nicholson's contract upon receiving him later today.
This trade is happening merely in efforts to ease some of the overly-loaded luxury tax that the Blazers have gotten into, projected to save the organization roughly $60 million in tax money alone, according to ESPN Insider Bobby Marks.
Blazers' general manager Neil Olshey has taken the most direct route to take some tax off the books by virtually giving the team's most expensive bench player away to a team that had clearly had him in its crosshairs since the last offseason.
Crabbe was one of the Nets' three restricted free agent targets along with the Miami Heat‘s Tyler Johnson and the Houston Rockets‘ Donatas Motiejunas (who is once again a free agent this season).
The Nets offered the 6-foot-6 sharpshooter a four-year, $75 million offer along with a 15-percent trade kicker, one which Portland ultimately matched in hopes to retain the Cal standout.
Crabbe was the second most-efficient three-point shooter in the league after Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kyle Korver (for those with at least 100 attempts) — making 134 trifectas through the season and shooting them at a 44.4 percent clip.
Brooklyn now sports one of the best young shooting commodities in the league, virtually getting the guy they targeted a season ago and saving $18.5 million in the process for their patience.
Nicholson on the other hand, will serve as an air bag to provide the organization some much-needed salary relief and hit the waiver wire in hopes of landing with a team looking to fill out its roster prior to the start of training camp.
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