Jamal Crawford to sign with LA Clippers
News broke early Thursday that Portland Trail Blazers unrestricted free agent Jamal Crawford will sign a deal worth three-year, $15.7 million contract with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times first broke the story as Crawford and point guard Chauncey Billups have agreed to new deals. Crawford back decided not to pick up his player option for the 2012-13 season and wanted to test free agency to secure a multi-year deal. In December before the season started, He signed to a 2-year contract with a player option.
In Portland the shooting guard averaged 14.0 points, 3.2 assists and 2.0 rebounds while shooting 30% from three-point range and 38% from the field, his lowest shooting percentage since his rookie year in 2000-01.
This comes as disappointed venture in Rip City for the 32-year old shooting guard, who won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 2009-10 and was thought to give the Blazer bench some automatic offensive firepower. But like Raymond Felton, Crawford didn’t live up to expectation and had trouble being apart of the Blazer offense and grew unhappy as the season went on.
The Clippers now gain a valuable piece to their back court and lucked out resigning Billups who agreed to one-year deal worth $4.3 million and will look forward to taking the court after suffering a season-ending left Achilles tendon tear.
photo courtesy of nba.com/blazers
Nicholas Filipas