The Portland Trail Blazers are entering a new era in their franchise now that LaMarcus Aldridge has bolted for San Antonio in free agency. Aside from losing Aldridge, the Blazers also traded away jack-of-all-trades Nicolas Batum this offseason to the Charlotte Bobcats for Gerald Henderson and lost Wesley Matthews to the Dallas Mavericks. While Henderson will be part of trying to replace Batum and Matthews, the Blazers will also need some young guys to step up to pick up the slack. Among the young guys that need to step up are C.J. McCollum and Allen Crabbe, but unfortunately, Crabbe injured his ankle in the Blazers summer league game on Wednesday.
Crabbe was screaming in pain when he first went down, and many in the building thought the injury was very serious. To make matters worse, a stretcher was brought out and Crabbe was taken off the floor. Fortunately for Crabbe, though, X-Rays came back negative, so he didn't break any bones, but he is not out of the woods yet as he is scheduled for an MRI according to NBCSports.com.
Before the injury, Crabbe was off to a tremendous start in the summer league. He had played in four games and averaged 15.5 points per game while shooting 53 percent from the field and 44 percent from three as he tries to prove to the Blazers that he can be a key rotational player. Unfortunately for Crabbe, one can only assume that he is done for the summer league, even if it is just a sprained ankle. If the MRI were to come back clean, Crabbe should be able to make it back in time for training camp, which starts in September.
Crabbe is a 6-foot-6 shooting guard from the University of California that was the first pick of the second round in the 2013 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. At the time, Crabbe was one of the very best scorers in the nation, averaging 18.4 points per game in his junior season before entering the draft. In his two seasons in the NBA, the 23-year-old hasn't had much of an opportunity to show what he can do as he has played in only 66 games and a total of 783 minutes for the Blazers.
Now that the Blazers have lost a couple of key wings to other teams, this might be the year Crabbe can get himself a role if his ankle is healthy when the season starts. In limited minutes with the Blazers, Crabbe has shot 36 percent from three, which is about on par with his numbers from college when he shot 38 percent from long range, so he is clearly capable of contributing.
