Free agent guard Shabazz Napier has agreed to a two-year deal with the Brooklyn Nets, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
Free agent guard Shabazz Napier has agreed to a two-year deal with the Brooklyn Nets, league sources tell ESPN. Napier, 27, had his best pro season with the Blazers last year.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 14, 2018
The deal includes a team option in the second season, which allows the team to decide whether to keep Napier past this season or allow him to enter unrestricted free agency next July.
Napier is coming off a career-best season with the Trail Blazers, averaging 8.7 points, two assists and 2.3 rebounds in 21 minutes per contest. He also shot a career-high 42 percent from the floor and 38 percent from 3-point range in those 74 games.
Once touted as “the best point guard in the draft” by LeBron James, Napier won a National Championship with UConn under head coach Kevin Ollie during the 2014 season.
The Nets also met with restricted free agent guard Marcus Smart this week, but haven’t given him an offer sheet to this point. The team appears to be gearing up to spend most of its cap space in the summer of 2019, when free agents such as Kevin Durant, Jimmy Butler, Klay Thompson and others are expected to be available.
With the Napier addition, Brooklyn’s backcourt consists of Spencer Dinwiddie, D’Angelo Russell, Allen Crabbe, Joe Harris and Napier.
