Andrea Bargnani and the Brooklyn Nets apparently had a breakup that wasn’t as amicable as it appeared on the surface.
By Chip Murphy
Andrea Bargnani and the Brooklyn Nets agreed to a buyout back in February. It was the first move by new GM Sean Marks. There was nothing suspicious about it. Not until yesterday anyway.
The former No. 1 overall pick posted message on his Facebook page in Italian. It translates to this.
“I chose to leave the Nets and a guaranteed contract because the conditions under which they had convinced me to sign were otherwise and being used with such limited playing time, it made no sense to continue to remain in that situation for me or for the team.”
Truthfully Bargnani has nothing to complain about. He was awful for the Nets. He played in 46 games and averaged 13.8 minutes, 6.6 points, 2.1 rebounds, 0.2 blocks, on a slash line of .455/.188/.
Bargnani was 459th of 462 eligible players in real plus-minus (according to ESPN.com) and dead last in FG% allowed at the rim (via Nylon Calculus), letting opponents shoot a staggering 65.6%.
The Nets were minus-14.6 points per 100 possessions when Bargnani was on the floor, and believe it or not that was up from his horrendous number last season with the New York Knicks.
Under terms of the buyout, the Nets agreed to pay Bargnani $323,000 on next year’s player option of $1.4 million.
