Hawks Will Attempt To Re-Sign Jamal Crawford This Off-Season

[Bawse]

After showing little public interest in offering Jamal Crawford an extension, it now appears that the Hawks will be willing to negotiate once the season is over and a new CBA is in place.

Sund also said that after not trading Jamal Crawford’s expiring contract the Hawks would attempt to re-sign him: "I’ve said from Day One I’m a big fan of Jamal. Once we figure out what the new [CBA] rules are we will do everything in our power to re-sign him."

I have maintained that it was a foregone conclusion that Jamal would walk at the end of the season. I had already earmarked Jordan Crawford as Jamal's likely replacement. Well Jordan is no longer with the team and that option no longer is available and now it at least on the surface appears that the Hawks would explore the option of bringing Jamal back. Of course it all depends on the price and at best that is uncertain.

There will be a new CBA next season (if there is a next season) and it is tough to speculate just what the landscape might look like. Atlanta has a lot of salary committed to next season already and the new collective bargaining agreement could push player salaries down but it might also push the cap down which really won't give a team like the Hawks any relief.

A couple of theories here. Perhaps Atlanta is hoping that Jamal will give them a discount. After all he is the one that has expressed his desire to stay in Atlanta. This probably isn't very likely considering that Jamal wanted an extension under the current CBA and probably won't be doing Atlanta any favors under the new agreement this off-season.

Another thought that comes to mind is that Atlanta may be looking to clear some salary during the off-season by shopping players like Marvin Williams and Zaza Pachulia. There have been reports of Marvin being shopped at different points this season and Zaza was held out of the game in Phoenix because he was close to being traded. One might be able to go a step further and say that it is likely only Joe Johnson and Al Horford would be deemed untouchable by the Hawks front office. Perhaps only Horford is truly deserving of that mantle.

Unless something changes drastically, I don't think it is likely that Jamal Crawford will be back in an Atlanta uniform next season. Sure the Hawks may give him an offer but this time they will be bidding against other teams. That is of course unless they are suddenly willing to go into the luxury tax which to this point they have resisted at every opportunity.

Thoughts? Commnets? Good idea or no?

I figured this would be the case since we did not trade him before the deadline.

[JohnnyCASH]

:suicide: :suicide: :suicide:

[Mdizzle5]

:suicide: :suicide: :suicide:

nuff said.

[capstone21]

Resigning JC would make JC2's trade make more sense. He would not get pt with Joe and JC on the roster.

I hope it will be an affordable contract

[JohnnyCASH]

Resigning JC would make JC2's trade make more sense. He would not get pt with Joe and JC on the roster.

I hope it will be an affordable contract

:beathorse:

[Bawse]

Well, either we re-sign him or try and fill a huge hole in the lineup. Hoping he'll try and take less but I doubt it. Refilling Jamals spot on the roster will be tough.... i'm for the re-signing. As long as we have a true identity at PG.

[WakaFlocka]

I have extremely mixed feelings about this...

On one hand we absolutely need a guy that can come off the bench and get some buckets, but I'm just not sure I like the idea of Jamal being that guy again next year. Most guys play lights out in a contract year, Jamal on the other hand has been crapping the bed for the majority of the season and hurting us a lot on the court. The problem is who's out there to replace him? JR Smith is a FA, but at cost would he come? There's also Jason Richardson ($$$), Reggie Williams (who I like a lot, but he's restricted and I'd think GS would match him), Michael Redd (if his knee gets right he could be pretty good off the bench), Grant Hill, Delonte West, Sasha Vujacic, Tracy McGrady... There's really not a whole lot out there this summer that I'm seeing.

[GameTime]

I have extremely mixed feelings about this...

On one hand we absolutely need a guy that can come off the bench and get some buckets, but I'm just not sure I like the idea of Jamal being that guy again next year. Most guys play lights out in a contract year, Jamal on the other hand has been crapping the bed for the majority of the season and hurting us a lot on the court. The problem is who's out there to replace him? JR Smith is a FA, but at cost would he come? There's also Jason Richardson ($$), Reggie Williams (who I like a lot, but he's restricted and I'd think GS would match him), Michael Redd (if his knee gets right he could be pretty good off the bench), Grant Hill, Delonte West, Sasha Vujacic, Tracy McGrady... There's really not a whole lot out there this summer that I'm seeing.

I much rather use Jamal's huge future contract on 3-4 quality bench players. Our bench is beyond weak.

[cam1218]

Mixed feeling's about this, but I think we need him. I feel this is one of those "you don't know what you got until it's gone" type of situations. Outside of a couple of games in 2011, Jamal has been pretty bad recently. Most fans seem to have a what have you done for me lately attitude. I think now that the deadline has passed and he knows he is here for the rest of the year we will see Jamal start playing with a little more confidence.

If it is a good contract I don't see why we shouldn't keep him. Lord knows we need guys that can give us some offense when Joe/Al aren't scoring.

[niremetal]

Like Sund said, it's not really useful to discuss this stuff until we know what the new CBA rules will be. We have a ton of salary committed to our "core" already, and if a hard cap or tougher luxury tax gets put in place, the decision could get made for us. On the other hand, if the CBA ends up looking like it does right now, we can afford to keep Crawford as long he's willing to take a significant paycut (which he should, because I don't see any teams offering him more than the mid-level this summer). But we can't do a cost-benefit analysis until we know what the NBA economy looks like.

Edited March 1, 2011 by niremetal

[tremor]

I wouldn't mind resigning last year Jamal. This year Jamal is not good for MLE. Give his shots to Joe, Al and Josh and replace him with defensive minded veteran.

[Guest]

Like Sund said, it's not really useful to discuss this stuff until we know what the new CBA rules will be. We have a ton of salary committed to our "core" already, and if a hard cap or tougher luxury tax gets put in place, the decision could get made for us. On the other hand, if the CBA ends up looking like it does right now, we can afford to keep Crawford as long he's willing to take a significant paycut (which he should, because I don't see any teams offering him more than the mid-level this summer). But we can't do a cost-benefit analysis until we know what the NBA economy looks like.

The negotiations would have to take a huge turn toward the players for there to be a CBA where resigning Jamal would really make sense. Yes, we don't know the CBA and it does make this move a little murky but given our owners a move of resigning Jamal is a move of stagnation. We won't make any other moves if we resign Jamal.

[warcore]

I'd only sign him to a 1 year contract.

[macdaddy]

I got on here just to post about Jamal. Trading Bibby for Hinrich was a defensive upgrade but anyone who watched the 4th quarter against the nuggets should see that we have another glaring weakness on D. Jamal was the culprit in most of the Nuggets crunch time baskets as he just watched guys blow by him, didn't contest their shots, and didn't fight through screens. Some of this was forgivable when he was scoring like crazy but now he's not even doing that.

[Jody23]

Unless the Hawks move some of their albatross contracts, I really don't see how they can keep Jamal and improve the roster at the same time. Even though they've added Kirk, this is still a team that might not make it out of the first round potentially let alone the second round.

[coachx]

Crawford will either play for a good team for the MLE or a bad team for money.

I'd be shocked if Atlanta offers more then the MLE.

[Sothron]

We can't keep Crawford. He's horrible on defense and he's aging quickly out there. We blew a golden chance to trade his expiring at the deadline. We DO NOT need to repeat the Bibby mistake all over again!

[Guest]

I'm torn - we need a scorer off the bench but if his shot is not falling he is pretty much useless in other areas. He doesn't run the offense at the point well enough to set up teammates (they hardly ever touch the ball) and he is horrible defensively.For the right price and contract length then maybe.

[AHF]

This is the right move to make from a PR perspective. No one knows what the landscape is going to be like with the new CBA. Crawford may be in a position where he has few options outside of Atlanta (at a decent salary) - meaning we could resign him to a decent contract - or we may be in a position to S&T him somewhere else. In either one of those scenarios, we are better off if the world thinks we want to resign him. If we don't end up resigning him, we can always say it just wasn't possible under the new CBA. Since this statement is little more than a "warm and fuzzy" sort of announcement that we like Crawford, I have zero problems with this.

[sasuke]

S&T him for 2 role players. If Zaza can be packaged in the deal......teenage dream!