NBA Rumors: 76ers Pursue Portland’s Crabbe

As NBA free agency nears, NBA Rumors are heating up. This time, the Philadelphia 76ers will pursue Portland Trailblazer’s restricted free agent Allen Crabbe

The NBA Rumor mill is churning out rumors now at full speed.  We have received confirmation that the Philadelphia 76ers are pursuing the signing of  Golden State Warrior Harrison Barnes, as well as Oklahoma City Thunder perimeter shooter Dion Waiter.

As we learned quickly afterwards, not everyone is excited about the potential moves.

And so, when the fish are biting, you can toss the first catches back in hopes of landing a bigger fish.  So the latest rumor now is that the Philadelphia 76ers are actively pursuing Portland Trailblazer Allen Crabbe.

The problem facing the Philadelphia 76ers this free agency is unique.  Because the team is coming out of a 10-72 season loaded with salary dollars to spend, the team will not have options on the best talent of the NBA, and will be forced to outbid on the second tier free agent talent who will talk to the team.

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Even that is not as complex as the third issue.  With the team selection of forward Ben Simmons, the team will have virtually no chance attracting the interest of any traditional NBA Point Guard.  Why would they?  The knowledge is already out that the team will consider Simmons a point forward, and eventually ease him into a point guard role down the road as he masters the game at the NBA Level.

There will be no Barnes, Conley, DeRozan or even Rondo.  In fact, the team may find it difficult to attract the attention of second tier types of Jeremy Lin or Jordan Clarkson.

But they may have a chance at Allen Crabbe , perhaps.  As a restricted free agent, the Portland Trailblazers merely need to extend a qualifying offer to preserve their right of first refusal.  In short, the team will be able to retain Crabbe if they match the terms and compensation of any team bidding on the young man.

Crabbe is young, just 24 years old, and he’s just emerging as an NBA shooting guard.  But he is emerging in a big way.  In his third season as a Portland Trailblazer, he appeared in 81 games, averaged 26.0 minutes per game, scored 10.3 points per game, pulled down 2.7 rebounds per game and handed off 1.2 assists per game.

If fans hoped for the Philadelphia to scoop up Allen Crabbe before other NBA teams noticed the break out shooting guard, they will be terribly disappointed.   The NBA free agency market is flush with cash this year, and many teams simply haven’t enough player options to spend it all on.

Allen Crabbe is one player who will reap a huge paycheck as a result.   In fact, Bobby Marks of the Vertical identified Crabbe as one of the hottest free agents to hit the market this season all the way back in February 2016.

Since Crabbe will fall under the full rights of the Bird exception, Portland will be able to match any offer extended to Crabbe via another team.  To say it will be tough to pry the young man from the Trailblazers is putting it mildly.

Next: Why the Philadelphia 76ers won the NBA Draft

Still, the only hope the Philadelphia 76ers have is to toss their hat in the ring.  We may get lucky. Or in the context of already receiving the first pick of the 2016 NBA Draft, we may get luckier.