Brooklyn Nets: Player grades from a 4th straight win in Phoenix
By Phil Watson
If there was an award for Backup Center of the Year, Ed Davis would be a runaway winner.
The size of the hole he has plugged in the Brooklyn Nets’ rotation is enormous and Tuesday night was another one of those games where Davis quietly went out and darn near put up a double-double off the bench.
If dude could make a free throw (he was 1-for-5 on the night), he’d have gotten there.
But Davis was his usual beastly self on the glass, solid on defense — notably getting a stop on Devin Booker after a switch on the perimeter — and just rock solid.
After watching a parade of bad backup centers over the past couple of seasons, Davis continues to be nothing short of a revelation and one of the best free agent signings of the summer in the NBA.
Give Allen Crabbe the utmost credit for not letting his missing jump shot keep him from contributing in a variety of other ways.
Crabbe’s jumper is just gone at this point. He’s leaning far to the left on almost every release, he’s over-thinking it, trying to wish it in and generally so far inside his own head when he shoots that he might not find his way out.
But he worked the glass hard, he defended well and, bless his heart, he kept shooting it. That’s what shooters have to do to get out of those funks when they find themselves in one.
Meanwhile, we have issued an APB for Crabbe’s missing number and hope to get some calls to the tip line soon.