Shane Larkin To Play In Spain

Free agent guard Shane Larkin will join former teammate Andrea Bargnani in Spain next season. According to an announcement from Spanish team Laboral Kutxa Baskonia, Larkin has reached an agreement to play for the club next season. Bargnani, who played with Larkin for the Nets and Knicks, signed a deal with Baskonia last month.

A first-round pick out of Miami in 2013, Larkin only lasted one season with his original team, the Mavericks, before heading to New York for one year and then playing last season in Brooklyn. In 202 career NBA games, Larkin, who will turn 24 in October, has averaged 5.8 PPG, 3.2 APG, and 1.1 SPG, with a shooting line of .430/.328/.762.

Back in April, before he decided not to exercise his $1.5MM player option with the Nets, Larkin told reporters that he doesn’t want to “play a 10-year career with eight different teams,” suggesting he was seeking a multyear deal.

“I just turned 23, so I’m still young,” Larkin said. “Being able to get with a team on a two-year deal or three-year deal saying, ‘This is what we want you to be. We want you to spark our offense, push the tempo, be this guy and this is what we feel you can do for the team,’ then that’s perfect. Whether I’m a starter or whatever, it’s cool either way.”

It’s not yet clear whether Larkin will have more than a one-year stay in Spain, or whether he’ll end up joining his fifth team in five years after one season with Baskonia. We also don’t yet know if Larkin was able to match the $1.5MM salary he would have earned if he hadn’t opted out of his Brooklyn contract. His new deal was presumably negotiated by new agent Jim Tanner of Tandem Sports & Entertainment, who was hired by Larkin last month.

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