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Brooklyn Nets Sign David Nwaba To Round Out Roster

This article is more than 4 years old.

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On Sunday, Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks completed his team's reconstructed roster by signing David Nwaba as the 15th and final player to round out the 2019-20 team. The Nets put their last veteran’s minimum contract to use as they signed the defensive minded guard and Brooklyn will be the 26-year old’s fourth stop in as many seasons.

Facing luxury tax concerns, the Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t extend Nwaba a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent and allowing Brooklyn to nab him a on a team-friendly contract. Nwaba will earn $1,678,854 this year, and Brooklyn’s team option for 2020-21 will be for $1,824,003. According to Michael Scotto of The Athletic, there was also interest from Indiana, Sacramento, Houston and Phoenix.

After going undrafted out of Cal Poly, the Los Angeles native scratched and clawed his way through the D-League before getting a chance with the Lakers in 2016-17. Since then, he has bounced to Chicago for a season and then Cleveland. For his career, the offensively challenged Nwaba has averaged 7.2 points and 3.9 rebounds in 141 games. He is a career 32.6 percent shooter from 3.

The 6-foot-4, 220 pound swingman will be entering his fourth season in the NBA after spending the 2018-19 campaign with Cleveland, averaging 6.5 points and 3.2 rebounds in 19.3 minutes across 51 appearances. When healthy, Nwaba was a key contributor in Larry Drew's rotation, often taking the toughest defensive assignment.

Nwaba arrives to Brooklyn with a solid defensive reputation and his defense even stood out even on a historical bad Cleveland team, who set an NBA record for worst defensive rating in history last season. He is like a poor man’s Tony Allen with a seven-foot wingspan and his calling card is his high-energy, high-effort defense. If he can get his shot to be more consistent, Nwaba could really carve out a long NBA career as a 3&D wing.

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The Nets wouldn’t call upon Nwaba to score very often and will rarely draw up a play to get him a shot. But he provides quality depth to get through an 82-game regular season. He'll join Taurean Prince, Garrett Temple, Wilson Chandler and second-year player Theo Pinson as wings on the Nets’ roster that will try to fill the void while Kevin Durant recovers from Achilles surgery.

Marks, having already acquired Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan, might be up for some real summer vacation time following his busy off-season. The 2019-20 Nets, who will be on the hook for approximately $126,074,941 million in payroll next season appear ready to make a deeper playoff push. At least deeper than the one made by Kenny Atkinson’s feisty squad that fell meekly in five games to the 76ers.

Yes, Nwaba, a relative unknown to the casual fan, will only be borderline rotation player on a fairly deep Brooklyn team and his addition wouldn’t garner the national attention such as the free agency signings of Durant and Irving. But it's a very on-brand signing from Marks and Nwaba will quickly become a fan favorite with his hounding defense and tireless motor.