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Jamal Crawford is in high demand. Why?

Jamal Crawford

Atlanta Hawks guard Jamal Crawford (11) celebrates as he and Orlando Magic guard J.J. Redick (7) walk off the court after Game 6 of the NBA basketball Eastern Conference first-round playoff series, Thursday, April 28, 2011, in Atlanta. Atlanta won 84 -81, knocking the Magic out of the playoffs. (AP Photo/John Amis)

AP

More good stuff from Sports Illustrated’s Zach Lowe:

Jamal Crawford is a confounding player. He has a fairly high-profile, takes the sort of difficult crunch-time jumpers that make highlight reels and just looks the part of a dynamic NBA player. LeBron James and LaMarcus Aldridge have both recruited Crawford, an impending free agent, via Twitter the last few days. He’s a popular guy around the league, is thoughtful and honest, and star players are clamoring to be his teammate...

...Crawford is, by any measure, a borderline inefficient scorer who gets lost too easily on defense — both on and off the ball. And he’s nearly 32 years old. Should all these teams really be chasing him?


As Lowe points out, the NBA’s all-time leader in 4-point plays is a jump shooter who prefers to work in isolation as much or more than the NBA’s best guards and wings, not particularly adept at getting to the basket or a lights-out catch-and-shoot guy, and a borderline liability on defense. And yet he’d be in high demand if there was an actual free agency period happening right now.

It’s certainly tempting to imagine Crawford coming off the bench and providing a scoring jolt to a contender right at the moment they need it most in a playoff series, but it’s equally easy to imagine Crawford making far more money than he deserves and shooting his team out of a key game as his more talented teammates watch with looks of bewilderment on their faces. Crawford isn’t good enough to be a key piece of a team, but he’s done enough to demand a significant price tag in free agency -- it’ll be interesting to see where he ends up after an up-and-down 1st decade in the NBA.