Cleveland Cavaliers: Why Not Trade For Jamal Crawford?

The Cleveland Cavaliers need a playmaker and Jamal Crawford is a low-hanging fruit that the defending champs would be wise to add.

The New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers are talking about a potential trade they would move Carmelo Anthony to the Clips and Austin Rivers to the Knicks. However, the holdup to the deal reportedly involves finding a third team to take on Jamal Crawford and his annual salary of $13 million per year according to Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times.

Crawford, who is one of the best playmakers in the NBA, is a combo guard who is every bit the scorer that Shumpert is a defender and then some. Unless the Cleveland Cavaliers want to see if they can strike a deal that brings Anthony to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for a combination of Shumpert and Channing Frye, then they should trade for Crawford; while the team has a player in DeAndre Liggins who can emulate what Shumpert did as a defender, there isn’t a single player on the team who can play like Crawford.

Crawford, who was actually drafted eight overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2000 NBA Draft, has been a player that the Cavs have been interested in. Crawford has wanted to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers as well.

#Cavs would like to add free agent G Jamal Crawford, and feeling is mutual, per sources. But making it work money-wise another matter.
— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) July 3, 2016

Crawford, who at 6-foot-5 and 195 pounds can play either guard position, averages 11.8 points and 2.8 assists per game. Unfortunately, he’s been inefficient this season, converting on 39.2 percent of his field goals and 32.0 percent of his three-point attempts. While he has never been a particularly efficient player, with a career field goal percentage of 40.9 percent, he has a career three-point field goal percentage of 34.8 percent, so this season has been a bit of an aberration for Crawford.

The 4-point play leader, with 49, Crawford is a street baller who excels at creating his own shot and will be the perfect player within a second unit of Cavs players who don’t specialize in creating their own shot.

Games like the one above, a 115-105 win for the Los Angeles Clippers as they played the Atlanta Hawks, are perfect to illustrate the role and effect Crawford can have on the Cleveland Cavaliers.

While he doesn’t have to be the de facto point guard, Crawford can put the ball on a string and get to wherever he wants to go on the court because he has solid quickness for a player at 36-years-old. His ability to penetrate the lane consistently will allow him to find the open shooters on the Cavs and be the type of playmaker that will allow Kyrie Irving and LeBron James to rest.

43.1 percent of Crawford’s total shots are pull-up attempts from two-point range and he makes 40.6 percent of those attempts. Another 16.4 percent of his shots are pull-up attempts from three-point range, shots he hits at a 35.6 percent rate. As a catch-and-shoot player, only 3.2 percent of his shot attempts are two-point attempts and he hits 47.1 percent of those.

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This season, 19.1 percent of his shot attempts are catch-and-shoot three-point attempts and he’s only hit 29.0 percent of those. However, last year, 20.8 percent of his shot attempts were catch-and-shoot three-point attempts and he hit 39.0 percent of those.

The reason for pointing out his catch-and-shoot averages are because with a trade for Crawford, Shumpert is the most likely player to traded. Shumpert, who has been converting his catch-and-shoot three-point attempts at a 40.0 percent rate this season, is currently the Cleveland Cavaliers starting shooting guard. His role is that of a 3-and-D player and upon being traded, Liggins, Kyle Korver and Crawford are the players who will be considered for the starting shooting guard spot.

In all likelihood, Liggins would regain his starting role but Korver may also get the shot because of his three-point shooting prowess. Defensively, the Cavs lose a player that played strong defense for the starters in Shumpert but Liggins is capable of replacing Shumpert’s role as the Cavs defensive ace. Because Liggins wasn’t playing much with the second unit, it’s not as if the Cavs are losing a defensive presence on the bench per se. Crawford is moreso replacing the minutes that have been given to Kay Felder and Jordan McRae as of late.

In any case, the big picture is what matters most and in the big picture J.R. Smith is the starting shooting guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers. That means the bench will be led by Crawford, Liggins, Korver, Frye and Richard Jefferson. That’s a second unit with a decent chance of being able to keep the Cavs offense steady while Irving and James get a rest.

Resting those two earlier in the game will improve their playmaking ability at the end of games and now, while the Cavs have a playmaker on the bench they also can improve their ability to execute at the end of games. That only leaves one more roster hole for the Cleveland Cavaliers. A frontcourt player.

Why not bring Crawford to Cleveland? Wanting to keep the chemistry of the team in tact is a great move but not at the expense of the chances at winning a championship. It’s been clear since the start of the season that the Cleveland Cavaliers weren’t as strong as a team as hoped for. The only way this deal shouldn’t get done, in my opinion, is if the Cleveland Cavaliers are trying to pry Anthony away themselves in order to form a Fearsome Foursome.

Should the Cleveland Cavaliers trade for Jamal Crawford? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section or Twitter @KJG_NBA.