Why the Cavs should sign Jamal Crawford
The Cleveland Cavaliers could definitely use Jamal Crawford.
Age doesn’t define his game. 37-year-old Jamal Crawford averaged 12.3 points per game last season and his shake-and-bake wizardry would be the perfect fit for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second unit.
According to ESPN’s Chris Haynes, the Cavs have been inquiring about Crawford’s services.
Update: Cleveland, San Antonio and others inquiring. Atlanta prefers a trade. https://t.co/NKdozgVDxa
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) July 4, 2017
Between Jose Calderon, who agreed to sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers over the weekend, and Kyle Korver, who agreed to re-sign with the Cavs on a three-year, $22 million deal, the Cavs who two players that will rely on other players to break down the defense off-the-dribble.
Crawford, whose efficiency would be better if he played on a team with better spacing than Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan could provide, is the type of player that uses his ball-handling to get himself enough space to create his shot.
Combining his elite ball-handling ability with a natural feel of how to get defenders off their feet and draw a foul (shoots 86.1 percent from the free-throw line for his career) and a smooth jump shot that’s allowed him to be fifth all-time in career three-pointers (2,049 career threes). He has a chance to be in the top 50 players of all-time in career field goals if he plays just three more seasons as he’s already in the top-100 in career field goals. Considering how many players have come and left the game, who have tried and failed, those feats are rather impressive.
Simply put, Crawford is the one-on-one scorer that the Cavs have been missing in their second unit.
With the ball in his hands, Crawford isn’t just going to score either. He assisted on 15.2 percent of the Los Angeles Clippers’ field goals when he was on the floor. While Calderon assisted on 23.3 percent of his teams’ field goals last season, and that’s in line with the percentage of assists Deron Williams doled out for the Cleveland Cavaliers last year (25.9 percent), as a shooting guard we should be comparing the amount of assists Crawford contributed to a player like Iman Shumpert.
Last season, Shumpert assisted on 7.8 percent of all field goals for the Cavs. Crawford, who has played the point guard position nominally for five seasons in his 17-year career, has the awareness, passing ability and court vision to make plays as a facilitator from the shooting guard position. That will be a different dynamic for the Cavs’ second unit.
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While it wouldn’t be ideal to play Calderon and Crawford together because of their inability to play solid on-ball defense on a consistent basis, their offensive contributions and experience could negate a lot of the problems they could have in containing perimeter penetration.
Their ability to play team defense and play the passing lanes is a plus. However, the Cavs would be wise to have rim-protection and at least one player who can contain perimeter penetration in any lineup with that duo in the backcourt. Because of the necessity to get Kyrie Irving and LeBron James rest (which doesn’t have to come at the same time), Crawford’s ability to score and dish out assists will allow the dynamic duo to get a breather.
If Shumpert is indeed traded, a player like Luc Mbah a Moute or Thabo Sefalosha should be on the Cavs radar as a stout versatile defender at the small forward position.
The last notable aspect about Crawford is his playoff experience, as he’s been in the postseason every year for the past seven seasons. He’s averaged 14.5 points per game in those seven seasons and averaged 12.6 points per game last year but has been very inefficient from three-point range in his playoff performances with a career average of 30.8 percent from behind the arc.
This trend is pretty difficult to explain but defense it tougher in the NBA postseason and Crawford isn’t as efficient as they come to begin with. However, that’s where playing beside players like Calderon and Korver will come in handy, as they both have career shooting percentages over forty percent for their career.
If there’s a silver lining, it’s that his ability to score isn’t defined by his ability to excel from behind-the-arc. That was a big problem for the Cleveland Cavaliers bench unit in the 2017 NBA Finals.