Thunder signing Alex Abrines from Spanish League for 3 years, $18 million
The Spanish wing is an incredible shooter who provides much needed floor-spacing
By
Zach Harper
•
2 min read
You're not replacing Kevin Durant with one player in the NBA unless you manage to convince LeBron James to sign with the Oklahoma City Thunder. LeBron remains unsigned but it seems unlikely he'd shock the world in that manner. The Thunder are left filling in the void with smaller pieces hoping to eventually build up to one big stopgap in the wake of Durant's departure. One of those smaller pieces looks to be on his way from the ACB league in Spain.
EuroHoops is reporting Alex Abrines of Barcelona has come to terms with the Thunder on a three-year deal that will pay him $18 million. He has a buyout of two million euros, which the Thunder can cover $650,000 of, per NBA rules. That leaves Abrines to cover roughly $1.5 million American out of his own pocket. But he wanted to come to the NBA and the $6 million per season should help him recoup that buyout loss.
Alex Abrines and Oklahoma City Thunder have a deal. The Spanish forward has agreed to terms for a three year contract which will pay him near $18 million in total.
Of course with this kind of money, his buy out from Barcelona can be easily covered and he will follow his teammate, Tomas Satoransky to the NBA. Abrines is ready to cross the Atlantic and the 2 million euros buy out in his contract with Barcelona is one of the reasons he got such an offer from the Thunder, as the NBA team can pay up to $650.000 and the rest of the money will be paid by the player.
Abrines brings some serious outside shooting to the Thunder. He's a career 36 percent 3-point shooter but increased his accuracy to 41.7 percent this past season for FC Barcelona Lassa in Euroleague. In all competition (not just Euroleague games) with Barcelona over the last three seasons, Abrines has made 41.4 percent of his 3-point shots. At 6-foot-6, he'll be somewhere on the wing either at shooting guard or small forward for the Thunder.
He's played about 17-19 minutes per game for Barcelona over the past three seasons. The 22-year old Spaniard has battled some injuries issues and isn't a high volume scorer, but he's expected to be a reliable floor-spacing option in the NBA. He's great at coming off screens and spotting up. This past season, he made 53.5 percent of his unguarded catch-and-shoot attempts, according to Synergy.
While he wasn't a high-volume scorer for Barcelona, he had the third most efficient scoring season in the ACB. Only Jaycee Carroll and Gustavo Ayon had seasons with more offensive possessions and a higher points per possession rate than Abrines did.
