JULY 13TH, 3:55pm: The Clippers have officially signed Billups, according to a release from the team.
JULY 11TH, 5:25pm: The Clippers have officially signed Crawford, reports Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link).
JULY 5TH, 2:36pm: ESPN.com's Chad Ford (Twitter link) confirms that the Clippers can't be paid more than about $21.3MM with the mid-level exception, even if the deal includes unlikely incentives. So something has to give here. If the Clips hope to pay Crawford more than that amount, it seems they'd need a sign-and-trade.
2:05pm: The third and fourth years of Crawford's contract only include "small" amounts of guaranteed money, according to SI.com's Sam Amick (via Twitter).
1:22pm: Crawford's deal with the Clippers will be for four years and up to $25MM, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld says it'll be $24MM. Either way, that's larger than the maximum mid-level deal (about $21MM), so it seems there will be a few million dollars in unlikely incentives.
12:57pm: Jamal Crawford and Chauncey Billups have agreed to sign with the Clippers, according to Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. The agreements with the two guards will take the Clips out of the running for Ray Allen, says Turner.
Crawford, who opted out of his contract with the Blazers, is expected to sign a three-year deal for about $15.67MM. Billups, meanwhile, will likely sign a one-year deal that could pay him up to $4.3MM if he reaches certain incentives. Crawford's deal figures to use up the Clippers' full $5MM mid-level exception, while the team was able to to over the cap to re-sign Billups using his Bird Rights.
Billups' deal is good news for Chris Paul, who said last week that he considered bringing back Chauncey his "top priority" this offseason. Crawford will give the Clips the shooter they lacked for much of last season — before agreeing with L.A., he also considered the Timberwolves, Sixers, Grizzlies, and Suns.
The Clippers had been scheduled to meet with Allen on Friday, but cancelled the visit after reaching deals with Crawford and Billups. The pair of agreements also almost certainly means that Nick Young won't be re-signing with Los Angeles.
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Pretty good moves by the clippers. But they won’t be real contenders until Jordan and griffin develop an offensive game.
Real contenders???? That’s why they made the second round of the playoffs.
So did the 76ers and the Pacers. I wouldn’t call either of them real contenders.
Look at every playoff team and you will se that every one of them have big mans that can shoot the mid range jumper. The clipps can’t win a championship if their second offensive option is a guy that his only offensive weapon is dunking over everybody. I mean Look at the impact that guys like kevin garnet, Tim Duncan or even a guy like Ibaka that have improved his offensive game have made to their teams.
I think it’s more on Jordan. He needs to develop into a legitimate center, someone with his size and athleticism should be getting a lot more rebounds.
not too shabby