The Boston Celtics and veteran shooting guard Jamal Crawford have mutual interest in getting a deal done, according to The Athletic’s Jared Weiss.
Crawford is currently an unrestricted free agent and looking for a new team to join after spending last season with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Crawford signed a two-year, $9 million deal in 2017 with the Timberwolves, but declined his 2018-19 player option.
In 80 regular season games with the Timberwolves in 2017-18, Jamal Crawford averaged 10.3 points while shooting 41.5 percent from the field and 33.1 percent from three-point range coming off the Minnesota bench. He is looking for a larger role, though, as Crawford only played roughly 20 minutes a game with the Timberwolves, something he wasn’t expecting.
“I know that there is mutual interest between the Celtics and Crawford,” Weiss said on the CLNS Media’s Celtics Beat podcast. “The Celtics didn’t make an offer to him. He’s been kind of, you know, waiting on the right situation to materialize. That’s why he’s holding out ‘til, you know, training camp, basically. I think he wants to be in position to win a championship and so he wants to sign on with one of these title teams.”
The Philadelphia 76ers, who lost rookie guard Zhaire Smith to a Jones fracture, have grown more interested in Crawford’s services since the news broke Smith would require surgery. The Sixers let Ersan İlyasova and Marco Belinelli walk in free agency and are in need of a guy like Crawford who can come off the bench and get buckets in a hurry.
In 1,262 NBA games with the Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors, Atlanta Hawks, Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Clippers and Timberwolves, Jamal Crawford has career averages of 15.0 points, 2.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists. He has won the Sixth Man of the Year award three times.
