Pablo Prigioni now plays for the Los Angeles Clippers.
And that’s bad news for Jamal Crawford.
And he knows it.
Shams Charania of RealGM first brought word that Prigioni would be heading to Los Angeles after being waived by the Denver Nuggets:
Free agent guard Pablo Prigioni has reached agreement on a deal with the Los Angeles Clippers, league source tells RealGM.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 22, 2015
At its core, this is a great pickup. Prigioni is 38 and won’t be playing 35 minutes per night, but the Clippers didn’t have a true backup for Chris Paul until he came along. And while he does pass up a ton of open looks, he’s also a sensational passer and deadly catch-and-shoot marksman, the latter of which allows him to function when playing beside ball-dominant dudes like Paul, Austin Rivers, Lance Stephenson, Blake Griffin and Crawford.
But Prigioni may never play with Crawford. The Clippers are now stacked on the perimeter, one season after deploying a bone-bare outside corps. Paul, Rivers, Stephenson, J.J. Redick, Paul Pierce, Wesley Johnson and rookie C.J. Wilcox are all under guaranteed contract for next season. And that’s in addition to Crawford, who is now more expendable than ever.
Rumors of a possible trade have been floating around for a while, mostly ever since the Clippers acquired another multiposition beast in Stephenson. Crawford, even at 35 years old, can still get buckets and serve as the primal ball-handler for stretches at a time. But while he’s been a necessity these last three seasons, the two-time Sixth Man of the Year doesn’t look like he’ll fit in with the Clippers’ new and improved roster, at least not prominently.
Hence his (presumed) reaction to the Prigioni signing:
Ha ha ha…
— Jamal Crawford (@JCrossover) July 22, 2015
That came 25 minutes after Charania announced the Prigioni news, so it’s no coincidence. Plus, Crawford has been candidly cryptic about his future with the Clippers before.
Take this tweet from last Friday:
"@ThatGuy_Sammie: @JCrossover sooo you gonna stay a clipper or join the cavs? ??"-I'm not a f/a, wish but I'm not.. Soo u gotta ask Doc…..
— Jamal Crawford (@JCrossover) July 17, 2015
Different trade possibilities have been tossed around, many of them culminating with a trade to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but it’s difficult to pinpoint where Crawford could land next, if only because the Clippers’ asking price isn’t common knowledge. He’s seemingly of little value to them, and that could bog down their asking price considerably—especially now that they’re more than $10 million past the luxury-tax threshold. There’s a chance they could dump him to just to dump him, ducking a boatload of luxury-tax penalties in the process.
Or they could keep him. That’s obviously still an option.
Yet, in this tale of the unclear, it seems increasingly likely that’s an option the Clippers aren’t inclined to exercise.
