At 12:01 a.m. ET, free agency officially began in the NBA. While teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards all made moves. The Philadelphia 76ers, however, made phone calls tonight.
According to Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News, the Sixers were among five teams that reached out 36 year-old shooting guard Jamal Crawford. Despite Crawford’s age, he can still shoot the ball at a good rate, which led to him winning the Sixth Man of the Year Award this past season for the third time in his career.
This season, Crawford averaged 14.2 points, while shooting 40.4 percent from the field and 34 percent from three-point range. It is actually not a surprise that the Sixers are reaching out to a player such as Crawford. On Thursday, according to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders, he said that the Sixers are contacting veteran players to help them win now.
You have to commend new Sixers GM Bryan Colangelo for reaching out to veteran players, despite them losing 60 plus games over the last few seasons. There can be a certain stigma around a team, when they have a label of losing associated with them. Colangelo and the rest of the front office is trying to change that losing culture and turn it into a winning culture.
If the Sixers could add a player like Crawford, he automatically becomes the best shooter on the team. If you look at this past season’s numbers, the only player to come close to Crawford’s three-point percentage is Hollis Thompson, who shot 38 percent.
It will be interesting to see if the Sixers can snag Crawford as it won’t be easy. They are competing with teams such as the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers, who all went to the playoffs this past season.
According to Sam Amick of USA TODAY Sports, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers spoke to Crawford on Thursday night and he swore to Rivers that he isn’t going nowhere.
All in all, free agency should be fun for the Sixers in whatever route they take.
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