Crawford and Billups officially sign with Clippers

[mkwest]

The Clippers were informed on Thursday that guards Jamal Crawford and Chauncey Billups intend to sign contracts with the team when the NBA’s moratorium period is lifted for free agents to sign deals, according to NBA executives who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Crawford, an unrestricted free agent who opted out of his $5.2 million contract with the Portland Trail Blazers, has been offered a spot by the Clippers. He is expected to sign a three-year, $15.7 million contract, according to the executives.

Billups, who played in just 20 games last season with the Clippers before suffering a season-ending left Achilles tendon surgery, will sign a one-year deal that could be worth up to $4.3 million if he reaches bonuses, the executives said.

With Crawford and Billups reaching deals with the Clippers, L.A. cancelled the visit they had planned for free agent shooting guard Ray Allen on Friday.

Brad Turner, LA Times

Any clarification on the terms of Crawford's deal yet?

[mkwest]

SUMMER SLEEPER: Jamal Crawford

“The team that signs me this next season is getting a team-first guy, a good locker room guy, a competitor,” Crawford said via email. “Someone who will do whatever it takes, and can get you 17 to 20 points a game whether starting or coming off the bench.”

“In Portland, honestly, we never had a chance to jell, get to know each other,” Crawford said. “And the fact that I was never in a steady role I think effected my production some. No one really had a great season besides LaMarcus (Aldridge).”

“It’s been a roller coaster ride the last few years,” said Crawford, who will be joining his fourth team in five seasons. “So I’m looking for some stability, an environment I can still grow and get better, and to help the team improve. I feel like I’m just in my prime.”

Marcus Thompson, Inside Bay Area

[donemilio21]

I would have much rather have Ray Allen with us than Crawford.But neither Billups nor Allen would have been the come off the bench guy.

Do we know when Chauncey can play again ?

Our line up looks like

Paul/Bledsoe
Billups/Crawford
Butler/Odom
Griffin/Odom
Jordan/?

We will still need a solid PF/C.

[mkwest]

Chauncey believes that he'll be ready for training camp. December/January may be a little more realistic, but who knows?

We've been linked to being interested in signing Ryan Hollins to come off of the bench. Not necessarily solid, but a little more length than in the past. Hopefully Odom, Blake and DJ will be able handle the majority of PF/C duties and that the 2 youngsters make enough of an improvement defensively to make a difference.

I would have rather seen us sign Allen as well. We didn't even get to meet with him. Sure, Boston can offer him more money and the Heat are the defending champs, but give yourself a chance. I'm still trying to find out the exact terms of Crawford's deal. There are bonuses, but are they likely or unlikely? Plus how much of the 4th season is guaranteed? Crawford is younger, but he's still 32 and potentially getting a 4 year contract.

Lee was intriguing in that he was younger than the other two and could play a little defense, but he's probably looking for more than the MLE. Crawford and Allen had a better chance at being a more consistent scoring option.

[Luigi]

Hey Clippers fans, so what do you expect the rotation to look like this year?

[mike3]

I hope Crawfords good for us. I'm not sure about the signing at all, bit uneasy with it but if it all goes through I'm ok with it. He seems focused and ready to play team ball.

Now we really need a good backup Center and Power Forward. I'm more than happy to keep Kenyon Martin at PF.. as for Center, I hope we can get someone good, not sure who's free to sign who would be good but a good center is hard to come by.

I want us to still sign Young though.

[Det the Threat]

I hope Crawfords good for us. I'm not sure about the signing at all, bit uneasy with it but if it all goes through I'm ok with it. He seems focused and ready to play team ball.

Now we really need a good backup Center and Power Forward. I'm more than happy to keep Kenyon Martin at PF.. as for Center, I hope we can get someone good, not sure who's free to sign who would be good but a good center is hard to come by.

I want us to still sign Young though.

We don't need a backup power forward as we've got Odom for that.
What we need is a backup center, another pf/c and a wing that can defend and hit his open jumpers.

Nick Young, to me, does not fit that criteria.

BTW: A guy I'd like as a backup big would be Jason Collins, who played with the Hawks the last couple of years. He's able to defend the big guys one on one and will give you six hard fouls.

[mj_shoefanatic]

Billups/Crawford shore up our 2 spot. Nazr Mohammed could be another option we should explore for backup C since OKC just signed Thabeet. Also, we should bring back Young as Caron's backup. Having faith in our 2nd yr players who didn't show anything their 1st yr is fools gold.

[mike3]

Forgot about Odom haha yeah ok so a truce backup center and backup small forward. I'm happy to keep Young as a backup SF if nothing else comes along. Nazr Mohammed should be a good pickup if we could somehow get him.

If we get that done I think our main improvements will take care of itself as it'll just be the team jelling over this offseason.

[mkwest]

Looking at the bright side of things regarding the Crawford signing and some of the other offseason moves so far.

Crawford is 32 years old and coming off of a season where he shot 38% from the field and 30.8% from 3. Defense is a not a strong suit of his or a suit at all for that matter. The thing is that he does provide much needed depth. He gets to the line nearly 5 times per 36 minutes (3.4 season average) while shooting 92.7%. Outside of Blake (7.1), Paul (5.0) and Billups (4.8), only DJ was able to get to the line more than twice per game and that was not a good thing. His field goal percentage was the 2nd lowest of his career while his 3 point shooting was rock bottom. Nowhere to go but up, right?

Randy Foye knocked down the 2nd highest 3 point percentage of his career (and highest total of his career in a shortened season) last season thanks to the looks that he received from being on the floor with players like Paul and Blake. Has Crawford ever played on a team with a player like Paul? No. He's going to have to adjust his game a bit, but hopefully that can make him a little more efficient.

Billups knows how to get to the line and was knocking down 2.4 long balls per game last season. It's hard to guess what his state of health will be, but he'll be big for us if he can come anywhere close to where he was. Some people choose to rag on us about how we went through a slump or how we finished the season, but we weren't healthy. If you pluck the 3rd best player off of most teams, they are going to struggle some. You compound that by having your 2 best players hobbled and you could easily get swept in the 2nd round by a white hot team.

These are not perfect signings, but I don't believe there really were any that weren't without their flaws. Players are being overpaid left and right and these 2 are relatively inexpensive. Even Crawford to an extent depending on the exact financial terms of his final 2 seasons. Ray is a player with a name that everyone loves. He's battle tested, but who knows how many games he truly has left? We weren't even necessarily in the driver's seat for his services anyway. Courtney Lee wants to get paid. He has youth on his side, but he's still merely a decent role player. Some people wanted to give up Bledsoe for him. I'd rather keep Bledsoe in addition to signing one of the other guards (Allen or Crawford) if that were our only hope of acquiring him. Maybe I'm tripping, or have just gone through the 5 stages of grief pretty quickly, but I'm going to be optimistic about this.

[mkwest]

Now we know why Clippers cancelled Ray Allen visit and jumped at chance to sign Jamal Crawford. (4 yrs-2 fully guaranteed)

Ralph Lawler

[Method28]

Not really feeling the Crawford deal...unless we were for sure that Lee and/or Allen was not going to give us a serious chance.

I really hope we get another capable body for the SF as I dont trust Butler's body or ability.

[LOJ]

Now we know why Clippers cancelled Ray Allen visit and jumped at chance to sign Jamal Crawford. (4 yrs-2 fully guaranteed)

Ralph Lawler

I'm guessing the 3rd year is a player option, and the 4th a team option?

[Method28]

From what ive read the last two years are both Team Options

[playaloc916]

I'm okay with the Crawford signing. I think with such a bad season behind him, he'll be a lot better, especially with Paul and Griffin being on the team to open things up and get him some good looks.

Honestly, I would've preferred Shuttlesworth. We all know he's well past him prime and on the decline of his career, but with the amount of open looks he'd get with this team, damn. I can only imagine. Now the Heat are even more dangerous.

Good to get Billups back though. Even if he can't play anymore, he's a big influence in the locker room, and it will keep CP3 happy.

[illastrate]

From what ive read the last two years are both Team Options

Source?

[So Gutta]

Not feeling Jamal Crawford on the Clippers. Just seems like the classic "chucker" role off the bench. Nick Young played pretty damn well for you guys. Crawford is already 32, doesn't care about defense whatsoever, and thinks he has the green light all day/everyday. If he's on, great. If he's off, he can really bring a team down.

[mkwest]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rkC-IKL7LU[/youtube]

[og15]

Not feeling Jamal Crawford on the Clippers. Just seems like the classic "chucker" role off the bench. Nick Young played pretty damn well for you guys. Crawford is already 32, doesn't care about defense whatsoever, and thinks he has the green light all day/everyday. If he's on, great. If he's off, he can really bring a team down.

Actually Young was about as inefficient as Crawford last season as a Clipper, and never really understood his role. People only think he played really well becasue he was critical in the playoff comeback.

I was looking at the numbers over the past few seasons, and I hope the coaching staff has also done their homework, but outside of last season when he was bad overall, where Jamal Crawford was poor was in transition. I'm assuming it might be because he took a lot of jumpshots in transition and some forced shots. What the team needs to be wary of is not allowing him to be a ball handler and decision make in transition. That will likely improve his transition efficiency by a good amount in terms of cutting down turnovers and low scoring efficiency,

[mkwest]

CLIPPERS SIGN FREE AGENT JAMAL CRAWFORD

The Los Angeles Clippers today signed free agent guard Jamal Crawford. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not announced.

A 12-year NBA veteran, Crawford tallied 13.9 points, 3.2 assists, 2.0 rebounds and 26.9 minutes in 60 games played for the Portland Trail Blazers last season. Crawford also connected on 38 percent of his field goals, 31 percent of his three-point field goal attempts and 93 percent of his free throws on the year. Crawford finished the season ranked first in the NBA in free throw percentage.

Named the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year in 2009-10 while with the Atlanta Hawks, Crawford has averaged 15.3 points, 3.9 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 31.8 minutes over his career. He turned out his most productive NBA season in 2007-08 while with the New York Knicks, tallying 20.6 points, 5.0 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 39.9 minutes in 80 games played.

The eighth overall selection in the 2000 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, Crawford was part of a draft day trade that sent him to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for the draft rights to Chris Mihm. After four seasons in Chicago, Crawford was traded to the New York Knicks, where he remained until being traded to the Golden State Warriors in 2008. Crawford was traded to the Atlanta Hawks prior to the start of the 2009 season, remaining there until signing with Portland as a free agent prior to the start of last season.

Clippers.com