The Atlanta Hawks and Golden State Warriors are closing in on a trade that would find a new home for Jamal Crawford.Crawford would provide a definite upgrade for 2009-10 at a cost of an additional $1.9 million over Law and Claxton. The player, not the money, leads me to believe that Mike Bibby is far less likely than Flip Murray to be re-signed. In fact, a Crawford/Johnson/Murray backcourt rotation would be something approaching Mike Woodson's platonic ideal. Hypothetical free agent signings aside, Crawford's arrival would likely continue to, if not further, limit Al Horford's role in the offense. Marvin Williams' role too if he's still here.
NBA front-office sources say that the Warriors and Hawks will soon complete a deal sending Crawford to Atlanta for Acie Law and Speedy Claxton.
Warriors coach Don Nelson made no secret of the fact that Crawford wasn't in his future plans. By shedding Crawford's longer contract and by virtue of insurance payments that will cover some of the costs of Claxton, Golden State would secure a decent measure of payroll relief with the trade.
Less clear is what impact the move will have on Atlanta's forthcoming negotiations with free agent-to-be Mike Bibby. Although Crawford is not a pure point guard, he's a prolific scorer whose arrival could affect the sort of contract offer Bibby expected to command from the Hawks.
Crawford is owed an additional $10.08 million in 2010-11 to add to the $17 million owed Josh Smith and Al Horford, plus Mo Evans $2.5 million player option.
EDIT: David Aldridge calls it a done deal. (6:26pm)
7 comments:
Does he play D? Apparently not: "Hhe's an incredibly soft defender who rarely stops penetration or helps" (Hollinger).
What the hell are the Hawks doing? This is unbelievable--YET ANOTHER jump-shooting non-driving backcourt ball hog!
More Hollinger: "This also makes him useful in last shot situations, where he can dribble the clock down and get a decent look right before the buzzer."
AAAAAARRRRRRRGH.
Also, if they do this--including not re-signing Bibby--I think they will probably NOT draft a PG--they'll go with Hansbrough or some other big to replace ZaZa, figuring they now have three versatile ball-handling guards, so they can get a fourth in the second round or off the free agent scrap heap.
Hoopinion,
What are you basing your belief that we are more likely to re-sign flip than bibby now? It seems to me that when you add up Acie, Speedy, whatever Flip signs for (i'm guessing 3 to 4 million) it's less than what we are gonna pay Crawford. This frees up money to re-sign Bibby, Zaza, and Marvin.
Adding up what we are going to pay Joe, Smith, Horford, Evans, Morris and Crawford next year, it comes to about 42.8 million
add to that what it will cost to pay Zaza and Marvin (I'm assuming about 14 million for both) and you get 56.8 million.
that will leave us roughly 10 million to resign Bibby, our draft picks, and to fill out our roster
So why do you think we aren't gonna resign Bibby? Do you think the Hawks will slash Payroll? I know we aren't going to pay the tax, but attendence went up last year so there is no reason to think that the hawks can't pay what they did last year.
thirdfalcon--
Both the cap and the luxury tax line will be lower in 2009-10. I could be wrong and Bibby will be willing to sign for the MLE or thereabouts, but I doubt he wants to play for 40% of his 08-09 salary.
Even with a raise from $1.5 million, Flip should come relatively cheap as I don't think there's a huge demand for him and he likely knows that other teams won't give him either the freedom or minutes he enjoys under Woodson/Sund.
All this free agent speculation depends on assessing the market of the Hawks free agents and those from other teams (including potential sign-and-trade scenarios), guessing how much the cap and tax lines will come down (probably $1-2 million), and how much ownership is willing to spend.
There's lots of ways to guess wrong. We'll likely have a slightly better idea at this time tomorrow depending on who the Hawks take at 19. If Crawford really is Bibby insurance and they're willing to spend half their cap on three guards, I'd guess they'll go big in the first round.
Bret LaGree,
I know the cap is going down, that's why i said we'll have about 10 million in cap room instead of 14.
But it's really all speculation about how far the cap will go down, I've seen it as low as 62 million, but i kind of doubt it, my scenario assumes it's at 66 million
I'm also assuming Bibby will sign for 7 or 8 million
Bibby will sign for a lot less--it's impossible to imagine anyone wanting to pay a 30+ year-old PG as much as he was making for as long as he was making. The question is can they get him low enough to sign their draft picks too? I just hope that they see Crawford as Flip insurance rather than Bibby insurance. But it's the Hawks, and bets are always off on whatever makes the most sense.
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