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The shorthanded Brooklyn Nets are adding Jamal Crawford to their roster.
Facing a shortage of reliable guards (and healthy players in general), the Brooklyn Nets are making one of the more predictable additions to their roster leading up to the NBA restart in Orlando. According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the Nets will use one of their four substitute roster spots on veteran sixth man Jamal Crawford.
This unsurprising news comes only a day after it was reported the Nets would be playing without wing Taurean Prince, who had tested positive for coronavirus. That added him to a long list of players who will not play in the bubble, including DeAndre Jordan (tested positive for COVID-19), Spencer Dinwiddie (ditto), and Wilson Chandler (personal decision) — not to mention Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Nicolas Claxton, who are all currently sidelined by injuries.
Crawford, a three-time Sixth Man of the Year winner and 19-year NBA vet, was last seen dropping 51 points for the Phoenix Suns in their 2018-19 regular-season finale. Sure, it was a meaningless final game of the season with most of the prominent players sitting out for both sides, but Crawford’s ability to put the ball in the hole in isolation — even at age 40 — has never been in doubt.
As it stands, the Nets’ depth chart is looking incredibly thin:
- PG: Tyler Johnson, Jamal Crawford, Chris Chiozza, Jeremiah Martin
- SG: Caris LeVert, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Garrett Temple
- SF: Joe Harris, Dzanan Musa, Justin Anderson
- PF: Rodions Kurucs
- C: Jarrett Allen
While it’ll be fun to watch LeVert and Harris get a ton of touches, Brooklyn’s currently lineup is sorely lacking in the creation department outside of LeVert and Tyler Johnson. Crawford is a minus on the defensive end and has hovered around 40 percent shooting over the last five or so years, but he can create offense in a pinch and has the potential to go off on any given night.
The Nets won’t be winning a playoff series after this addition to their bench, but Crawford is a well-respected, seasoned veteran in this league, and his arrival will at least make this severely shorthanded team more entertaining to watch. For a Brooklyn squad that desperately needed to round out its roster with actual NBA players, Jamal Crawford was a no-brainer addition.