Jamal

Crawford

Crawford is a three-time Sixth Man of the Year award winner and will go down as one of the best six men in the history of the game. He scored 19,419 points in his 19 seasons with multiple franchises.

Crawford injured the hamstring during his Nets debut, and he hasn’t played since. And with Brooklyn down three games to none, he may not have the opportunity to play again this season.

He might not play at all during this first-round series.

We haven’t seen any reports of Crawford ramping up his workload at recent practices, so we have to assume he’s still not close.

Crawford’s signing was welcome news for Brooklyn, giving them a proven scorer to fill the void left by so many absent rotation players. Unfortunately, his strained hammy will keep him out a while, and since he’s being ruled out a day in advance this is more of an ‘indefinite’ situation.

This will be his fourth straight game on the sidelines, and we probably won’t see him again during these seeding games. We’re going to flip him to “out indefinitely,” and we’ll provide the next update when he’s made meaningful progress in his recovery.

The veteran’s comeback with the Nets isn’t over quite yet, since Brooklyn is basically locked into a playoff spot. Hamstring injuries tend to linger, though, and at 40 years old Crawford may not heal in time to help on the court. On the plus side, he can still be a veteran presence in the locker room, which is largely why the Nets signed him in the first place.

He likely wasn’t going to be in the rotation anyways with Caris LeVert and Joe Harris expected back after a planned rest day. Coach Jacque Vaughn said that Crawford will miss “a few games,” and given the tricky nature of hamstring injuries, we might not see him again during these seeding games.

Crawford became just the eighth player in NBA history to appear in a game over 20 different seasons today, and he also became the oldest player (40) to ever suit up for the Nets, but it only took five minutes and 58 seconds for him to get injured. He did look good in the limited amount of time he was out there, but depending on the severity of the hamstring injury, this could take him out of the remaining seeding games. He finished with five points, three assists and a 3-pointer.

This will be Crawford’s first taste of NBA action since he put up 51 points against the Mavericks in the final game of the 2018-19 season. We wouldn’t expect such a big stat line today, as he’ll be coming off the bench and will have minutes restrictions, although he could be looked to frequently on offense with Caris LeVert (thigh) and Joe Harris (back) taking the day off.