With the Brooklyn Nets (4-7) currently on a five-game West Coast road trip, their next stop will be a visit to Portland to take on the Trail Blazers (6-5) on Friday night at Moda Center. One former Blazer, shooting guard Allen Crabbe, will return to Portland for the first time since being traded to Brooklyn back in late July.
According to Joe Freeman of OregonLive.com, Crabbe can't help but reminisce about his four seasons in Portland as a Blazer.
“I miss it,” Crabbe said on Thursday. “I'm not going to lie.”
Although he misses the time he spent in Portland, he is glad to be a key piece of Brooklyn's roster going forward.
With the star guard tandem of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, the signing of small forward and the 2010 NBA Draft's second overall pick Evan Turner to a four-year, $70 million deal back in July 2016 as well as the emergence of rising star center Jusuf Nurkic, Crabbe felt that he simply couldn't reach his full potential as an NBA player in Portland with the Blazers.
“It's everything an NBA player would want,” Crabbe said. “To be a key piece to a team. I don't think it was going to happen (in Portland).”
While he was expected to be an important scoring piece for the Nets this season, the unfortunate ACL tear that point guard Jeremy Lin suffered during the Nets' first game of the season further increased his role in head coach Kenny Atkinson's offense.
In 11 contests this season for the Nets thus far, Crabbe has boasted 11.1 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game in just 24.7 minutes per game.
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