Los Angeles Clippers: 2016 Offseason Grades
Keeping Crawford
Apparently three is the magic number for the Clippers, since they continued to re-sign their bench unit with a three-year, $42 million extension for Jamal Crawford.
Once upon a time, in the not-so-distant past, Crawford was Lob City’s most important bench weapon. He’s a three-time Sixth Man of the Year (winning two of those awards with the Clippers), was usually good for around 15 points per game off the bench and made sure the offense was as dangerous as possible whenever Griffin or CP3 needed a break.
Unfortunately, Crawford is no longer that same player at age 36 — regardless of what Sixth Man of the Year voters thought last season. In fact, his decline has been on full display for a few years now, with Crawford failing to shoot better than 42 percent from the field in each of his last three seasons.
Don't know if anyone has reported this yet (been busy) but Jamal Crawford's 3-year deal has only $3M of the $14.5M guaranteed in the 3rd yr.
— Larry Coon (@LarryCoon) July 10, 2016
The master of the four-point play saw his numbers continue their nosedive last season, when he averaged 14.2 points per game on 40.4 percent shooting from the floor and 34 percent from downtown.
Crawford’s ability to create offense in one-on-one situations used to be pure, backyard basketball magic. Now it’s just stagnant offense that’s hard to watch, especially since Crawford’s name has been mentioned frequently in trade rumors over the last few years.
By the time KD made his decision, the Clippers only had so many options left. Crawford gives them a go-to scorer off the bench who can get his own shot off whenever he wants, but $14 million a year for a player on the decline — and for three years, no less — feels like an overpay to keep an average bench unit together.
Grade: C-
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