After rumors indicating that he was likely leaving, possibly to the Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Clippers have agreed to a three-year, $42 million deal with Jamal Crawford.
Well, I won’t lie, I wasn’t expecting this. At least not yet. With rumors of such high interest from so many teams around the league and reported mutual interest with none other than the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, it looked like Jamal Crawford‘s time with the Los Angeles Clippers had come to an end. After reports emerged that they made a low, insulting offer, that seemed even more likely. But not anymore.
Sam Amick of USA Today Sports reported that after such issues, the Clippers and Crawford have agreed to a three-year, $42 million deal.
Jamal Crawford is staying with the Clippers, I'm told. Three years, $42 million.
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) July 3, 2016
While there’s an immediate sigh of relief for Clippers fans that were quickly seeing this team look less and less like itself, especially after the departure of Cole Aldrich, $42 million over three years for a 36-year-old Crawford is an awful lot of money.
Even after the NBA salary cap hitting $94 million this summer, Crawford’s salary rising from $5.67 million last season to $14 million per year from now on is a major jump, and the length of the contract is surprising. After outside interest in Crawford and his open mind to the market, Doc Rivers changed his mind to hand out a long-term deal after all.
We now know that their original offer was for one-year, $12 million, but it’s clearly three years that Crawford wanted. And as Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders reported, Crawford said “this is where I wanted to be all along!”
As for the money, though, the Clippers’ cap situation has soared.
#Clippers will be hard capped this year -- $117,287,000
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) July 3, 2016
One positive is that going forward as the salary cap rises again next year, Crawford’s $14 million per year won’t look so bad. Even right now, $14 million is the rough amount that could have been expected for him in this market.
On the other hand, though, Crawford will obviously be even closer to 40 as those three years go by, and knowing whether his production will diminish is a concern. With age, trading him with what looks like a cheaper salary as the cap rises won’t necessarily be that rewarding if that’s an option the Clippers consider.
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It restricts the team’s future cap situation into territory they clearly didn’t want originally, which is the obvious concern with Jamal’s deal. Even for a player who seemingly doesn’t age, everyone has to look nearly 40 at some point.
In terms of this summer, the Clippers’ options are limited now.
With Crawford’s salary rising (his bird rights helped, of course), Wesley Johnson‘s three-year, $18 million deal will need to be accommodated with the mid-level exception at around $5.6 million per year. That can free up enough cap space for Crawford and any other minor leeway the Clippers can have, although it only really leaves the bi-annual exception (worth $2.2 million) to make another acquisition.
Rumors have recently emerged that the Clippers are interested in bringing back small forward Matt Barnes, so he and Luc Mbah a Moute could be targets.
Next: Cole Aldrich agrees to 3-year, $22M deal with Minnesota
Putting those roster matters aside for a moment, welcome back, Jamal.