Jamal Crawford Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pacific Notes: Crawford, Barnes, Ezeli, Hibbert

October 21st, 2015 at 2:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

It took a sell job from Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers, but Jamal Crawford is on board with continuing to be a part of a crowded rotation, as Dan Woike of the Orange County Register details. Rivers and Crawford spoke about their issues over the summer and again before camp, and while Crawford took to social media this summer to drop vague hints that he was dissatisfied, the two-time Sixth Man of the Year now says it can “easily work” for him in L.A. Rivers said in September he was unlikely to trade Crawford, swatting down rumors. See more from the Pacific Division:

Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob would like to see the team sign Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli to extensions before the November 2nd deadline, but he’d still be OK with them ending up in restricted free agency next summer, as Lacob said in a podcast with Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. Lacob also made it seem as though it’s unlikely that Steve Kerr will coach the team in the opener as he continues to nurse his ailing back.
Roy Hibbert is fostering team chemistry in a way that no one did on the Lakers last year, Jordan Clarkson tells Bill Oram of the Orange County Register. The big man doesn’t see it as all that important but thinks that if he can help others perform, it will reflect well on him in the future. Hibbert is poised to hit free agency this coming summer. “When the team wins,” Hibbert said, “everybody wins. So helping them is going to help me on the court in the long run and then that will help whatever contract stuff. So you have to be selfless.”
Omri Casspi is struggling in the preseason, but coach George Karl isn’t worried about the player in whom the Kings invested $5.8MM on a new two-year deal this summer, observes Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. “I think the way he played at the end of last year, he’s earned the right to be given some freedom and opportunity to figure out what happens this year,” Karl said.

Pacific Notes: Clarkson, Gudaitis, Iguodala

October 2nd, 2015 at 10:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Lakers guard Jordan Clarkson has chosen Jeff Austin and Chris Emens of Octagon Sports to represent him, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News reports. Clarkson was previously represented by Mike George of Excel Sports Management, which reportedly broke off its relationship with the young guard back in September. The young combo guard was reportedly frustrated with the agency’s communication and felt he received conflicting information about marketing opportunities, according to an earlier report by Medina. Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press first reported the split. Clarkson is eligible to become a restricted free agent next summer.

Here’s more from the Pacific Division:

Lithuanian big man Arturas Gudaitis, whose draft rights are held by the Kings, said that Sacramento has expressed interest in signing him for next season, according to a report by Donatas Urbonas of 15min.It (translation by Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). Gudaitis, who is signed to a multi-year deal with the Lithuanian club Lietuvos Rytas, said his dream is to play in the NBA, and that he will travel to Sacramento to work out for the team after his season is completed, Urbonas notes.
The Warriors intend for veteran swingman Andre Iguodala to continue his role as a top reserve during the 2015/16 season, Diamond Leung of The Bay Area News Group writes. “Nothing is set in stone, but we won 67 games, so I don’t think we’ll change the starting lineup to start the season,” coach Steve Kerr had said prior to taking his leave of absence due to back related issues. “Why would we? Why would we change what we did last year when we had as much success as we did?“
Jamal Crawford has been the subject of numerous trade rumors throughout the offseason, but he says that his time spent in New York as a member of the Knicks prepared him for the daily barrage of questions from the media, Janis Carr of The Orange County Register writes. “That time [in New York] prepared me for this,” Crawford said. “It’s a business and in a day, you can only control what you can control and worry about how you can get better.” The veteran shooting guard also noted that he is extremely happy to still be a member of the Clippers, Carr adds. The franchise was reportedly exploring trades involving the two-time Sixth Man of the Year shortly before the draft, with other reports this summer indicating that the Heat, Cavs and Knicks have held interest, but Doc Rivers recently said that the team was unlikely to deal Crawford.

Pacific Notes: Ezeli, Butler, Crawford

September 26th, 2015 at 1:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Warriors center Festus Ezeli, who is eligible to sign a rookie scale extension prior to the deadline this fall, wants to remain with Golden State long-term, Diamond Leung of The Bay Area News Group writes. “I don’t want to leave,” Ezeli said. “I love this team. I love my teammates. The fans here are unbelievable. I’m inspired to come in every day and see even our best player, Stephen Curry, just working really hard. So this whole team and being here, the chemistry that we have, you can’t buy this anywhere. You can’t get it anywhere else.” Hoops Rumors’ Chuck Myron took an in-depth look at Ezeli’s extension candidacy earlier this month, which can be viewed here.

Here’s more out of the Pacific Division:

Metta World Peace‘s one-year, minimum salary deal with the Lakers doesn’t include any injury protection or guaranteed salary, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets.
Kings swingman Caron Butler, who signed with the team this offseason, says he is looking forward to the challenge in Sacramento, and noted that he was offered more money from other teams, Deuce Mason of Sports 1140 relays (on Twitter).
With the Clippers‘ offseason additions adding depth to the team’s rotation, swingman Jamal Crawford‘s minutes are likely to suffer, a sacrifice that he is willing to make for the good of the team, Robert Morales of InsideSoCal.com relays. “I think it will be a lot of sacrifice, obviously, to sacrifice minutes, whatever it may be,” Crawford said. “Your common goal has to be winning.“ The Clippers were reportedly exploring trades involving the two-time Sixth Man of the Year shortly before the draft, with other reports this summer indicating that the Heat, Cavs and Knicks have held interest, but Doc Rivers recently said that the team was unlikely to deal Crawford.
Rivers noted that the Clippers now possess the most talent that they have had since he’s been a part of the organization, Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times tweets.

Rivers: Clippers Unlikely To Trade Jamal Crawford

September 11th, 2015 at 2:52pm CST by Chuck Myron

Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers said today that it’s unlikely the team will trade Jamal Crawford this season, the last one on the swingman’s contract. Rivers made his remarks to host Fred Roggin on The Beast 980 radio in Southern California (audio link), as Dan Woike of the Orange County Register passes along via Twitter. The Clippers were reportedly exploring trades involving the two-time Sixth Man of the Year shortly before the draft, with other reports this summer indicating that the Heat, Cavs and Knicks have held interest. Crawford has helped fuel the rumors on social media, tweeting in July that he wished he was a free agent, as I noted when I examined the 35-year-old’s trade candidacy.

“Jamal’s a Clipper, and I’d be very surprised if he’s not a Clipper at season’s end,” Rivers said in his radio appearance, one in which he also denied rumors that president of business operations Gillian Zucker was exerting authority over basketball decisions.

The Clippers, under Rivers’ guidance as president of basketball operations, upgraded their depth this summer, trading for Lance Stephenson, and signing Wesley Johnson, Paul Pierce and Pablo Prigioni. Another trade sent Matt Barnes away, but the team re-signed Austin Rivers, Doc’s son. All of it would appear to put a squeeze on Crawford’s playing time, particularly if the acquisition of Stephenson proves fruitful.

The team has nonetheless been unmotivated to trade Crawford in recent weeks, as Woike observed late last month. The comments from Rivers today appear to indicate his confidence that he won’t change his mind as the season develops, in spite of the roster logjam. Crawford already saw his minutes drop to 26.6 per game this past season, his fewest since the 2002/03 season. Still, a lack of depth was a weakness for the Clippers in the playoffs this spring, so perhaps the new acquisitions will simply fill in gaps elsewhere.

Crawford is due $5.675MM this season, a relative bargain based on his past production. That salary would make it difficult for the Clippers to find decent value in return, since, as taxpayers, they’re limited to taking in no more than 125% plus $100K of his salary without attaching other players to him in a trade.

Do you think Rivers will reconsider his stance and deal Crawford before the trade deadline in February? Comment to share your thoughts.

Latest On Potential Heat Trades, Mario Chalmers

August 26th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

The Heat expect to keep Mario Chalmers until at least the start of training camp, and owner Micky Arison has made no demand that the team shed salary, reports Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. The prospect of trading for Jamal Crawford, an idea the Heat reportedly raised in talks with the Clippers nearly two months ago, “can’t be ruled out,” but Miami is satisfied with its depth on the perimeter, Jackson writes. The Heat are still willing to trade Chris Andersen, but the market for him has been soft, Jackson hears from a higher-up who’s been in contact with the Heat, and no evidence suggests the Clippers are interested in him as part of a swap involving Crawford, Jackson adds.

The Heat would still prefer to offload salary and haven’t ruled out trading Chalmers, set to make a guaranteed $4.3MM in the final season of his contract this year, as soon as October, according to Jackson. The point guard hasn’t given indications that he’s expecting to be traded, and team president Pat Riley denied reports around draft time indicating that the team was shopping Chalmers and Andersen. Grantland’s Zach Lowe nonetheless heard a couple of weeks later that Chalmers and Andersen were available “for nothing.” Andersen didn’t seem concerned about the rumors when he made a public appearance earlier this week, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel chronicles.

An opposing GM told Jackson in mid-July that Chalmers and Shabazz Napier were the players the Heat were shopping the most aggressively, and Miami dealt Napier to the Magic later that month for no salary in return. That, plus the swap that sent Zoran Dragic to the Celtics with no other salary involved, helped Miami lower its payroll, though the Heat still have about $90.4MM in guaranteed salary, which puts them about $5.66MM above the $84.74MM luxury tax threshold. The Heat would have to pay repeat-offender tax penalties if they’re still above the tax line on the final day of the regular season. Miami only has 12 players on fully guaranteed deals, and if they keep Hassan Whiteside on his partially guaranteed contract but get rid of everyone else, they’d have a tax bill of roughly $16.3MM. Jackson estimates the tax bill at around $23MM, though that appears to include some of the non-guaranteed contracts.

Do you think the Heat will move below the luxury tax line this season? If so, how do you think they’ll manage to do it? Leave a comment to tell us.

Western Notes: Crawford, Dejean-Jones, Prince

August 22nd, 2015 at 3:00pm CST by Eddie Scarito

There are reportedly multiple teams, including the Knicks, Heat, and Cavaliers, that are interested in swinging a deal with the Clippers to acquire sixth man Jamal Crawford. But Los Angeles isn’t currently motivated to give up Crawford without garnering a useful return, Dan Woike of The Orange County Register relays in a series of tweets. It wouldn’t be a wise move to deal Crawford, who is extremely valuable as a bench piece, for a backup caliber point guard or center, Woike opines. The Orange County Register scribe believes that the smarter move for the Clippers would be to hold onto Crawford and see how the team’s roster shakes out in training camp to better assess what the team’s needs are before making a decision.

Here’s what else is happening around the Western Conference:

The Pelicans dipped into their mid-level exception to sign undrafted shooting guard Bryce Dejean-Jones, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. The pact includes a partial guarantee of $50K for the 2015/16 campaign, while the other two seasons of the deal are non-guaranteed, Pincus adds.
According to league sources, the Jazz have yet to contact other teams or free agents regarding adding another point guard in the wake of Dante Exum‘s season-ending knee injury, Andy Larsen of KSL.com relays (Twitter links). Utah appears content to begin the season with Trey Burke, Bryce Cotton, and Raul Neto, and will potentially look to acquire additional help later in the season if needed, Larsen adds. There were reports that the Jazz had interest in acquiring Garrett Temple from the Wizards, but Washington reportedly isn’t anxious to to move Temple, and he wouldn’t come cheaply if they were so inclined.
Tayshaun Prince‘s minimum salary arrangement with the Timberwolves for the 2015/16 season is fully guaranteed, Pincus tweets. The addition of Prince gives Minnesota 16 fully guaranteed pacts, according to our roster count for the team.

Atlantic Notes: Embiid, Johnson, Crawford

August 21st, 2015 at 6:20pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Sixers center Joel Embiid underwent a second surgical procedure on his injured right foot this week, and he is expected to miss the entire 2015/16 campaign as a result. While the news that the 2014 No. 3 overall pick will miss his second consecutive campaign is bad enough, there’s also a strong chance that Embiid will also miss the beginning of the 2016/17 season, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (video link), with a hat tip to Chris Walder of TheScore.com.

“Talking to my sources, they want to see him return around October – not this October, but the next October, for that season,” Pompey said. “And he may not even return for the start of that season. He may miss a couple games. But that’s their goal.”

Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

The Raptors will miss Amir Johnson ‘s intangibles and hustle this season, with the forward having signed a two-year, $24MM pact with the Celtics this offseason, writes A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com. “He went from a role player to a very big piece of what we were doing,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said of his former player. “He became the core of what we were doing in Toronto. We went from a young, up and coming team to grow. We’ll miss his leadership, his toughness. He has a quiet toughness about him that we will miss with our team.”
The Knicks reportedly have interest in acquiring Jamal Crawford from the Clippers, and Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders believes that landing Crawford would take additional pressure off of Carmelo Anthony on the perimeter and also provide good spacing for the entire Knicks offense overall. Greene also notes that trading for the guard wouldn’t have a negative impact on the Knicks’ salary cap since Crawford is in the final season of his current deal.

Trade Candidate: Jamal Crawford

August 19th, 2015 at 12:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Jamal Crawford apparently wishes he were a free agent, as he said on Twitter earlier this summer, but he still has one more season left on his contract. However, if he wants to leave the Clippers, he seems to stand a decent chance of having that happen for him before next July. The Clippers aren’t eager to trade the two-time Sixth Man of the Year award winner, but they reportedly explored the idea around draft time, and they’ve spent the summer upgrading on the wing, with newcomers Lance Stephenson, Paul Pierce and Wesley Johnson. The Knicks have expressed interest, as Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reported Tuesday, and the Heat and Cavs were apparently interested as of earlier this summer. Crawford is 35 years old and coming off his fewest minutes per game since the 2002/03 season, but it appears there’s still a market for him.

The Heat called the Clippers about Crawford in early July, as Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com reported then, but as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel points out, that was before Miami signed Gerald Green. Bringing in Crawford and his $5.675MM salary would likely commit the team to paying repeat-offender tax penalties this season, Winderman also asserts, though that would probably depend on the nature of the trade they’d make. The Clippers, like the Heat and the Cavs, are above the tax threshold for now, and that would complicate any move, since the salary-matching constraints are stricter for tax teams.

The Knicks are well outside of tax territory, for a change, but they face other challenges. The Knicks don’t have any trade exceptions, so they’d have to send players to the Clippers to make a trade work. Only four Knicks players — Carmelo Anthony, Jose Calderon, Langston Galloway and Cleanthony Early — are currently eligible for inclusion in trades. First-round picks Kristaps Porzingis and Jerian Grant join them later this month, but that’s still not much to choose from. Calderon seems like the most logical candidate, given that the Clippers would be somewhat short on backup point guard options if Crawford weren’t there anymore, but the Clips would have to send additional salary to New York to make that a match. Porzingis would be an intriguing option for a Clippers team that doesn’t have much young talent coming up the pipeline, but the Knicks would be ill-advised to trade this year’s No. 4 overall pick for a 35-year-old who’s a year away from free agency. As Isola suggested, the involvement of a third team might be necessary if the Knicks are to somehow end up with Crawford.

The Cavaliers also only have four players eligible to be traded — Kyrie Irving, Anderson Varejao, Timofey Mozgov and Joe Harris — but they have a trade exception worth $10,522,500 that they can use to take in Crawford without giving up a player in return. That trade exception is a vestige of the Brendan Haywood contract that the Cavs were thinking about sending to the Clips when Cleveland looked into trading for Crawford in early July, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported then. The exception makes it easier for the teams to facilitate a deal, since the Clippers would have had to include additional salary along with Crawford to take in Haywood’s contract. Still, it would be difficult for the Clippers to give up Crawford without receiving a player who can help them in their quest for a championship this year. Teams only get so many legitimate cracks at a title, and the Clips would surely be loath to downgrade their talent just as they seem as close as they’ve ever been to the Larry O’Brien trophy.

That’s ostensibly why the Clippers aren’t anxious to trade Crawford in the first place. They’re probably not going to do a deal unless it benefits them on the court, and while Crawford could always pout or become a disruptive force in the locker room, he has yet to air his grievances beyond relatively innocuous social media interaction. The Clippers could nonetheless use some size behind DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin. They added Cole Aldrich through free agency, but Aldrich hasn’t proven to be the sort of player who could fill in as the starter for a championship-level team if Jordan or Griffin is injured for any significant stretch of time. That would make Varejao, despite injury concerns of his own, intriguing for the Clippers. It’s unclear just what sort of role a healthy Varejao would play for the Cavs this season, especially with Tristan Thompson‘s free agency still unresolved, but if Thompson comes back, Varejao would be relatively expendable. Of course, the Brazilian is also tight with LeBron James, and the Cavs would have to question the wisdom of sending one of LeBron’s friends to a contending team in a major market with warm weather. The Clips would also have to send additional salary to Cleveland to make a Varejao deal work.

Josh McRoberts and Chris Andersen offer no such salary-matching concerns, and they, like Varejao, would help deepen the Clippers up front. The Heat have no shortage of big men, with McRoberts, Andersen, Chris Bosh, Hassan Whiteside, Amar’e Stoudemire and Udonis Haslem all on the roster, so it would seem fertile ground for a trade is there. I’d contend that if the Heat were to trade McRoberts or Andersen for Crawford, they’d be no more committed to paying the tax than they otherwise would be, since it would entail an almost even exchange of salaries, and Crawford would appear to be a more intriguing trade chip to offer around the league if the Heat can’t find another way to slip under the tax line before the trade deadline. Crawford would give the Heat a strong alternative at shooting guard on the nights that Dwyane Wade can’t go. The addition of Crawford would make it easier for the team to play more small-ball lineups and for Miami to trade Mario Chalmers, currently Miami’s only proven option at the point behind Goran Dragic.

Regardless, it’s a seller’s market for Crawford. The Clippers wield the power, and if they want to mend fences with him, they can always pursue extension talks, as I pointed out earlier. Teams like the Heat, Cavs and Knicks will have to come to Clips coach/executive Doc Rivers, and not the other way around.

What do you think a good trade idea for Crawford might be? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Knicks Interested In Jamal Crawford

August 18th, 2015 at 12:54pm CST by Chuck Myron

12:54pm: Isola clarifies that the Knicks would have to be creative in constructing a deal for Crawford, suggesting the involvement of a third team would be a possibility (Twitter link).

11:51am: The Knicks have expressed interest in Clippers sixth man Jamal Crawford, a source tells Frank Isola of the New York Daily News (Twitter link). The veteran guard is under contract with the Clippers but has emerged as a trade candidate, with the Clips reportedly having explored Crawford trades around draft time and the Cavs and Heat apparently having been suitors last month. The 35-year-old who spent more than four seasons with the Knicks between 2004 and 2008 is a favorite of Knicks owner James Dolan, GM Steve Mills, assistant GM Allan Houston and Isiah Thomas, a Dolan confidant and WNBA New York Liberty executive who was president of the Knicks during Crawford’s time there, Isola adds (Twitter link). Current team president Phil Jackson would presumably have the final say about a deal that would return Crawford to New York.

The Clippers haven’t been anxious to trade the two-time Sixth Man of the Year award winner, but the trade rumors from earlier this summer, his exclusion from the team’s recruitment of DeAndre Jordan, and new players at his position cloud Crawford’s future, as Dan Woike of the Orange County Register wrote a few weeks ago. Crawford has also signaled his concern via social media, as Woike noted. Still, trade acquisition Lance Stephenson, one of L.A.’s additions on the wing, expressed enthusiasm about the idea of playing with Crawford, as Ben Bolch relayed late Monday (Twitter links).

New York has spent its cap room and doesn’t have a trade exception, so it would have to relinquish salary for a Crawford trade to work. The Clippers would no doubt want a player who can help them make a push for the title this year if they were to relinquish Crawford, though that’s just my speculation. Crawford is due to make $5.675MM this coming season, so salary matching would be based on that figure. Tax considerations may well come into play, since the Clips are about $11MM above the $84.74MM tax line. Conversely. the Knicks are roughly the same distance under the tax line.

Players who signed new contracts are off-limits for a trade until at least December 15th, so the only Knicks eligible for inclusion in a deal for now are Carmelo Anthony, Jose Calderon, Langston Galloway and Cleanthony Early. Anthony, who has a no-trade clause, almost certainly wouldn’t be included. First-round picks Kristaps Porzingis and Jerian Grant become trade-eligible later this month, and the Knicks are allowed to trade draft-and-stash signee Thanasis Antetokounmpo as soon as early September.

Given the constraints, do you see a workable deal that could land Jamal Crawford with the Knicks? Leave a comment to share your ideas.

Pacific Notes: Hibbert, Crawford, Cousins, Evans

July 28th, 2015 at 3:24pm CST by Chuck Myron

Lakers trade acquisition Roy Hibbert is excited to play for coach Byron Scott, and while he cautioned that he has nothing against Pacers coach Frank Vogel, the center made it clear as he spoke with TNT’s David Aldridge that his preference this summer was to end up on a team with a former player as coach. Hibbert also expressed his unwavering sentiment for Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird, even though Bird strongly signaled to the media this spring that he was ready to move on from the former All-Star.

Larry was very up front with me,” Hibbert said. “He said before the press conference that I can’t promise you minutes next year, and they wanted to go in a different direction. So it wasn’t like what happened came out of nowhere, what he said. I’ll always say that Larry changed my life. I was on the phone with my agent in the office during the [2009] draft process and Larry said ‘If Roy’s there at 17, we’ll take him.’ That meant a lot to me. I know that things change and the NBA is ‘What have you done for me lately?,’ but I could never say a bad thing about Larry or the Pacers organization.”

We had more on Hibbert’s old team earlier today, and now here’s the latest on his new team’s division rivals:

The Clippers aren’t anxious to trade Jamal Crawford, but trade rumors from earlier this summer, his exclusion from the team’s DeAndre Jordan recruiting effort, and the addition of newcomers at his position are inauspicious signs for his future with the team, as Dan Woike of the Orange County Register examines. Crawford seems to be wondering about whether the Clippers still appreciate him, and that doesn’t auger well for team chemistry if he’s still on the roster at the start of the season, Woike believes.
DeMarcus Cousins is a major fan of Reggie Evans, notes Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops, who writes amid a look at the top remaining free agents. Evans, who spent the last season and a half with the Kings, remains unsigned.
Quincy Acy has a non-guaranteed salary on the second season of his new two-year deal with the Kings instead of a player option, as had previously been reported, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
Undrafted rookie Duje Dukan‘s two-year deal with the Kings is for the minimum salary, Pincus shows on the same page.