Brooklyn Nets: Jamal Crawford Signing is a Mistake

With six players sitting out of the NBA restart in Orlando, the Brooklyn Nets were forced to go in another direction, which includes the signing of Jamal Crawford.

Either injury or COVID-19 has sent six players to the sidelines for the Brooklyn Nets. One of the moves the Nets made to fill this void is bringing three-time sixth man award winning guard, Jamal Crawford out of retirement.

This move was most likely made to give the team veteran leadership to help navigate through these turbulent times, and they obviously must think he can also still be productive.

In my opinion, they’re wrong.

Jamal Crawford didn’t play well in his last stint in the NBA, with the Phoenix Suns, so what makes the Nets think anything will be different for Crawford now that he’s been out of the league for over a year?

The Suns signed him for an inexpensive contract as a veteran leader to come off of the bench and help facilitate the ball to Phoenix’s scorers. Those scorers (Devin Booker and T.J. Warren) were deprived of a ball-handler who could assist them in what they did best the year prior.

Jamal Crawford changed absolutely nothing for their offense. Crawford, who was brought in for being a great ball-handler, couldn’t handle the ball. It’s fair that his primary position at that point was supposed to be a two-guard, but it’s also true that Devin Booker was the same way.

The Suns’ guards, including Jamal Crawford, were so pitiful that they had to have Devin Booker run the point. It’s hard to use the two-guard excuse for Crawford when “point-Book” was not afforded any excuses when he had to handle the ball.

Crawford had just one memorable game; his last. He put up a very impressive 51 points, this was his only memorable game, and it came in a losing effort.

During that season (2018-19) he averaged an abysmal 7.9 points per game in 64 contests. He was a prolific scorer for just one game and the rest of the season was very uninspiring from the vet. His 33% three-point shot was nice, but he only played 18.9 minutes per game.

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He was already on a steep decline in terms of the minutes he was playing, only being able to play 18.9 minutes per game on the 2018-19 Phoenix Suns who had a desperate need for his position is disappointing no matter who the player is, and a player like this won’t benefit the Nets much.

His leadership impact won’t really add up to more wins for the Nets, which makes this signing a bit more puzzling in my opinion, just ask the Suns. This veteran presence they were lacking equated to actually two fewer wins for the Suns with Crawford.

Crawford was by no means the only reason the team had 21 wins, but he didn’t improve the team at all. He wasn’t being paid a big contract nor will he on the Nets, but this move doesn’t bring much to the table for Brooklyn.

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There’s talk about 40-year-old Jamal Crawford staying with the team after this year, and that would be a mistake. While this move doesn’t give much risk, it’s true that Jamal Crawford can’t provide much to the team at this point, or the future.

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