Andrea Bargnani has signed with Brooklyn Nets, the team announced Sunday. Reports earlier in the day suggested that he was finalizing a deal with the Sacramento Kings, and if those reports were true, then Bargnani apparently had a quick change of heart.
Andrea Bargnani signs with Brooklyn Nets
Andre Bargnani bucked reports suggesting he was headed to Sacramento.
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Bargnani took the two-year veterans minimum and option to become a 2016 free agent to stay in New York City, after reportedly being offered more money to go to Sacramento according to ESPN’s Marc Stein.
Bargnani, 29, is coming off a season in which he played in just 29 games for the New York Knicks. He averaged 19.7 points in those games, but it was yet another disappointing year for the 7-footer who was picked No. 1 overall by the Toronto Raptors in the 2006 NBA Draft.
Ideally, Bargnani will spark an offense that finished 21st in the NBA averaging 98 points per game. If he can regain his outside stroke, he should stretch defenses enough to allow Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young to do damage inside.
Bargnani spent seven seasons in Toronto before being shipped to New York in 2013 exchange for a package of players and draft picks, including the Knicks’ 2016 first-rounder. He has played nine seasons in the NBA and has pulled down just 4.8 rebounds per game. He is a career 36 percent three-point shooter, but had failed to hit more than 31 percent of his three-pointers for three straight seasons until last year when he shot 37 percent from downtown. He’s also played just an average of 34 games a year over the past four seasons.
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