Does Anyone Roll The Dice On Andrea Bargnani?
By Phil Watson
Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks made his first move Saturday, waiving former No. 1 overall pick Andrea Bargnani. Will anyone roll the dice on the 30-year-old big man?
The Brooklyn Nets hired Sean Marks, the first native of New Zealand to play in the NBA, as their new general manager on Thursday and less than 48 hours later, Marks made his first move, placing big man Andrea Bargnani on waivers.
According to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, Bargnani and the Nets are negotiating a buyout of the two-year, veterans’ minimum deal he signed last summer.
Bargnani confirmed the news via his own Twitter account:
The Nets still owe Bargnani the remainder of his $1.36 million salary for this season. Bargnani held a $1.55 million option for 2016-17.
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It’s another slide deeper into the NBA’s abyss for Bargnani, who was the first European player chosen first overall in the NBA Draft when he was taken No. 1 by the Toronto Raptors in 2006.
Hailed as the prototype of the modern big man after three seasons with Benetton Treviso in Italy’s Lega Basket, things never quite clicked for Bargnani in the NBA.
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He did average 21.4 points per game for the Raptors in 2010-11, when he moved to center after Chris Bosh left for the Miami Heat via free agency, but despite his 7-foot, 245-pound frame, Bargnani was often reluctant to do two things that are vital for the survival of a big in the NBA—rebound and play defense.
In 10 NBA seasons, he’s averaged just 4.6 rebounds in 28.7 minutes per game, a 5.8 per-36 minute rate that is worse than that put up by guards Jason Kidd and Michael Carter-Williams for players who played at least 150 games since 2006-07 and the same as the per-36 minutes rebounding rate of Russell Westbrook.
In 46 games for the Nets this season, Bargnani made less than half (46.2 percent) of his shot attempts at the rim, down from his career mark of 59.8 percent entering the 2015-16 season, and was just 3-for-16 from 3-point range, meaning he wasn’t even effective as a stretch big the way he had been for at least a couple of his seven years in Toronto.
With Bargnani on the floor this season, the Nets were being outscored by a whopping 15.7 points per 100 possessions, compared to a minus-4.3 rating when he was on the sidelines, according to NBA.com/stats.
Prior to coming to Brooklyn last summer, Bargnani spent two injury-riddled seasons with the New York Knicks. He played in just 71 of 164 games and provided us with this “how-not-to” instructional video on clock management in late-game situations:
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With the deadline for playoff eligibility coming up on March 1, the question now becomes whether another general manager will roll the dice on Bargnani, who has deteriorated rapidly over the last three seasons from disappointing first overall pick to not-even-replacement-player levels.
Throw in his last season in Toronto, when he was limited to 35 games because of various ailments, and Bargnani’s value over replacement player (VORP) for the last four seasons is a minus-1.9.
As they would say in Bargnani’s native tongue, non bene.
What he has going for him is that he is, in fact, 7-feet tall, which puts him among a small subset of human beings.
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But at 30 years old and on a faster descent than a bobsled in terms of production, it’s hard to imagine an actual contending team surrendering a roster spot on a guy with 11 playoff games in 10 seasons.
All statistics via Basketball-Reference.com unless noted.