Brooklyn Nets: Wilson Chandler provides a stretch 4 look for 1-year deal

The Brooklyn Nets took a step toward addressing their long-standing hole at the stretch 4 spot by reportedly agreeing to a 1-year deal with Wilson Chandler.

After trying four different players at the power forward spot in 2018-19, the Brooklyn Nets will roll the dice on another guy with some stretch 4 ability, reportedly agreeing to a one-year, veteran’s minimum deal with Wilson Chandler, formerly of the LA Clippers.

Chandler, 32, is an 11 year veteran who played 51 games with the Philadelphia 76ers and the Clippers last season.

According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, the Nets and Chandler have agreed to the deal.

Free agent forward Wilson Chandler has reached an agreement with the Brooklyn Nets, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) July 3, 2019

Michael Scotto of The Athletic fleshed out the report that the contract will be one-year at the $2.56 million veteran’s minimum.

The Brooklyn Nets and free agent forward Wilson Chandler have agreed to a one-year, $2.6 million deal, a league source told @TheAthleticNBA. First reported by Yahoo.
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) July 3, 2019

Chandler started 32 games and played in 36 overall last season with the 76ers, averaging 6.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 26.4 minutes per game while shooting 44 percent overall and hitting 39 percent on 3.3 3-point tries per game.

But after he was shipped to LA as part of the trade that sent Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic and Mike Scott to Philadelphia, Chandler struggled.

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In 15 games and one start with the Clippers, he put up 4.3 points and 3.1 rebounds in 15.1 minutes per game, shooting 34.8 percent overall and just 32.5 percent on 2.7 deep tries a night.

Chandler was a first-round pick of the New York Knicks in 2007 and went to the Denver Nuggets as part of the Carmelo Anthony blockbuster trade in February 2011.

Last July, Chandler was shipped to the 76ers by Denver along with a 2021 second-round pick and swap rights for the Nuggets’ 2022 second-rounder, with the Nuggets getting $110,000 cash.

Chandler played last season on the final year of a four-year, $46.52 million extension he had signed with Denver in July 2015.

The 11-year veteran made it back from hip surgery that cost him the entire 2015-16 season, averaging a career-high 15.7 points per game for Denver in 2016-17 as a part-time starter.

But his production tailed off in 2017-18 as a full-time starter at the 3 spot, as he averaged 10.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 31.7 minutes per game. His shooting faded to 44.5 percent overall and 35.8 percent from deep on 3.3 attempts per game.

Last season’s overall scoring average of 6.0 points per game was the lowest of Chandler’s career. He was traded to the Clippers while he was out with a right quad injury, a factor that hampered his ability to integrate into LA’s rotation.

While with the 76ers, Chandler also missed time with an upper respiratory infection, a tight left hamstring and a left quad contusion. He missed 16 of the 52 games he spent with Philadelphia before the Feb. 6 trade.

Chandler will likely get a chance to nail down a rotation spot — and perhaps a starting gig — at the stretch 4, with Kevin Durant likely out for the season recovering from a torn Achilles’ tendon, but Rodions Kurucs — who started 46 games for the Nets at the 3 and 4 spots — could factor into that race as well.

Rookie Nicolas Claxton projects as more of a 4 than a 5 at this point because of his lack of bulk and will be in the competition for minutes at that spot as well.