July 03, 2016
Even after signing Jerryd Bayless, Ben Simmons and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot to contracts, the Sixers still have in the neighborhood of $40 million that they can spend in free agency. And it appears that they’ve targeted a couple of players over 30.
According to the Orange County Register’s Dan Woike and Basketball Insiders’ Alex Kennedy, the Sixers made a major offer to 36-year-old Los Angeles Clippers guard Jamal Crawford:
Hearing Philadelphia has made a significant offer to Jamal Crawford
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) July 3, 2016
Jamal Crawford, Courtney Lee and others are among the players Philly has been making huge (shorter-term) offers to in recent days.
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) July 3, 2016
Crawford reportedly received a small offer from the Clippers and will leave Los Angeles with new TV money available.
From a fit standpoint, Crawford doesn’t make a ton of sense. He’s a shoot-first isolation scorer (albeit one that is very fun to watch when he’s cooking) that has seen his level of play drop the last two years. The guess here is that he would theoretically run the Sixers’ second unit.
That said, Crawford is highly regarded as a teammate and that type of veteran presence certainly has value in a young locker room.
If Kennedy’s reporting is true, the Sixers have the right idea with these deals: big money, short term. With the salary cap exploding over the next two seasons and the Sixers not yet ready to compete, bringing in veteran guards at high numbers over those two seasons represents a solid understanding of the Sixers’ situation.
With these type of free agent signings, in two years when the cap goes down and the Sixers are likely a better team (and more attractive destination), the books would be relatively clean. We will see if they can get Crawford to agree to one of these deals.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
