With the NBA Lockout officially over, training camps and free agent movement will be on everyone’s mind as the NBA’s mandated December 9th re-start date to once again begin basketball related activity approaches.
Along with Tyson Chandler, Jason Richardson, and Marc Gasol, former NBA 6th Man of the Year Award winner and consensus elite level scorer Jamal Crawford will be one player that will be in high demand once free agency actually begins.
Surely the Atlanta Hawks, the team which Crawford has played the last 2 seasons, will do everything in their power to re-sign the career 15.4 ppg scorer, but if a deal to remain in the ATL doesn’t come to fruition, which teams would Crawford be interested in?
Per a story in the NY Daily News, Crawford recently just switched agents, committing to be represented by super-agent Andy Miller, who coincidentally already represents 3 current Knicks, namely Chauncey Billups and free agents Roger Mason Jr and Jared Jefferies.
In addition to the move to new representation, Craword already played briefly for coach Mike D’Antoni before being traded to Golden State 11 games into the ’08-’09 season, and per a source close to the high scoring guard, he has gone on record stating that he prefers returning to the New York area if he does not re-sign with the Hawks.
Crawford would be a great 3rd option alongside Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony but one has to wonder if the Knicks will be more focused on saving all their assets to make a run at either Chris Paul or Dwight Howard? On the other hand, Crawford did drop 52 points in a game as a member of the Knicks in 2007.
Playing alongside Deron Williams on the Nets, as they move to Brooklyn, is another viable option as is a Western Conference team like Portland, a sentiment echoed by Crawford himself in an interview with an Oregon newspaper nearly a month ago.
Of course, Lebron James has also been courting Crawford and Steve Nash on Twitter to take less money to play in South Beach all throughout the Lockout.
Jamal Crawford, even at age 31, remains one of the league’s best volume scorers and instant offense players. He leads all active players with 24 four point plays, and when hot, he can be as deadly from long range as any player in the league. In addition, he arguably possesses the best crossover move this side of an aging Allen Iverson, just don’t ask him to play any defense…….
Check out Jamal Crawford’s Career Highlights:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com,? Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
