As reported by the organization themselves, the Brooklyn Nets inked Andrea Bargnani to a veteran minimum contract Friday afternoon. According to ESPN the Sacramento Kings were “closing in” on signing the forward/center/guard/whatever, but very fortunately came up short.
#Nets have reached an agreement in principle with free agent F/C Andrea Bargnani, GM Billy King announced today.
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) July 12, 2015
In yet another false report from the national media concerning the Kings (when exactly is DeMarcus Cousins heading to Los Angeles, again?) Vlade Divac would’ve puzzlingly added another big man to the already stacked position.
Bargnani would’ve joined DeMarcus Cousins, Willie Trill Cauley-Stein, Kosta Koufos and Rudy Gay (who is rumored to have more minutes at power forward awaiting him this season) in the frontcourt, which would’ve not left him many minutes to chuck shots in.
And that’s seriously all Bargnani does. His per game career stats are not pretty, but they are pretty bizarre considering he’s a true seven footer. He got heavily overpaid by the Knicks two years ago mostly because of his scoring, which is really the only bright spot on this table:
| Season | Tm | G | MP | FGA | FG% | 3PA | 3P% | FTA | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-07 | TOR | 65 | 25.1 | 9.6 | .427 | 4.1 | .373 | 2.2 | .824 | 3.9 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 2.8 | 11.6 |
| 2007-08 | TOR | 78 | 23.9 | 9.3 | .386 | 3.3 | .345 | 2.2 | .840 | 3.7 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 2.7 | 10.2 |
| 2008-09 | TOR | 78 | 31.4 | 12.3 | .450 | 3.7 | .409 | 3.4 | .831 | 5.3 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 1.7 | 3.1 | 15.4 |
| 2009-10 | TOR | 80 | 35.0 | 14.3 | .470 | 4.1 | .372 | 2.9 | .774 | 6.2 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 2.7 | 17.2 |
| 2010-11 | TOR | 66 | 35.7 | 17.8 | .448 | 3.4 | .345 | 5.3 | .820 | 5.2 | 1.8 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 21.4 |
| 2011-12 | TOR | 31 | 33.3 | 15.6 | .432 | 3.7 | .296 | 5.6 | .873 | 5.5 | 2.0 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 1.7 | 19.5 |
| 2012-13 | TOR | 35 | 28.7 | 12.2 | .399 | 3.5 | .309 | 2.2 | .844 | 3.7 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 12.7 |
| 2013-14 | NYK | 42 | 29.9 | 12.0 | .442 | 2.6 | .278 | 2.4 | .824 | 5.3 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 2.4 | 13.3 |
| 2014-15 | NYK | 29 | 27.1 | 12.4 | .454 | 1.4 | .366 | 3.7 | .813 | 4.4 | 1.6 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 14.8 |
| Career | 504 | 30.1 | 12.7 | .438 | 3.5 | .356 | 3.2 | .824 | 4.8 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.6 | 2.5 | 15.0 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/13/2015.
Notice the career rebounds per game of 4.8, shooting percentage of 43.8, and blocks per game of 0.9. Those are really low numbers for a guy who supposedly plays all of his minutes as either a power forward or center. Bargnani just doesn’t have much of an impact for his teams, considering his scoring comes fairly inefficiently.
This is also illustrated by Bargnani averaging just 0.1 more steals, assists and blocks combined than personal fouls per game for his career. Outside of that clunky 35.6 percent three-point percentage grabbing him a lot of points on a lot of shots per game, he really hasn’t ever put up impressive numbers.
It also doesn’t speak positively for Bargnani that for his entire career his defensive rating has been higher than his offensive rating. That means Bargs has allowed more points per 100 possessions than he’s scored every season for the duration of his career, which is, uh, bad.
In short, if Divac actually did offer Andrea Bargnani a deal he did the Kings a favor by picking Brooklyn instead. Plus he didn’t even have to move, which is probably nice. At this point in his career it seems like a better bet to grab a promising young player from the Summer League, because at least then there’s a chance you end up with an efficient role player.
I suppose he could prove me (and a lot of other people) wrong and have a great comeback season in Brooklyn, but there’s a solid decade of evidence that suggests there’s about as much chance of Boogie ending up as a Laker in 2015.