Good point, Manu may flop enough to make fish envious, but at least he's classy and professional in general.
Yeah, the league (any league for that matter) should pass a rule that once players sign a contract, they are basically forfeiting their rights until that contract ends. If a player wants out, he should refund 100% the salary already received. But maybe this should go both ways as teams shouldn't be able to trade players. hm...
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic. What do you mean by 'rights'? I assume that a contract means you fulfill the duties required in return for getting paid, no questions asked.
Well there's different reasons to demand for a trade. In Jamal Crawford's case, he's not asking for a trade because he's unhappy with the team or his PT or whatever, its because the Hawks won't pay him before the new CBA (and/or the lockout) starts. And his reasoning makes sense. I don't know if any of you watched hawks games, however JC did about 80% of production Joe Johnson did during the regular season, then actually outperformed him during the playoffs. However the Hawks paid JJ the absolute max, then didn't bother giving Crawford an extension for roughly half of what JJ makes. Honestly I'm quite surprised at the reaction the people have with Crawford. Everyone was all that willing to get Bosh/Melo for the max, yet now no one is saying Crawford is worth 10M a year. IMHO he's worth that much, Crawford is extremely similar to Jason Richardson, and will give you both volume scoring and efficiency night in/night out. He's kinda' an old geezer at 30 years old, however people with his skillset tend to be effective past 33, so IMHO a 3 year contract at 10M would be fair value. Comparisons of TS%: Regular Season Playoffs J. Crawford 57.1 49.9 J. Johnson 53.8 45.3 Damn, didn't realize Joe Johnson had such pathetic efficieny. The hawks committed 120M to that guy? LOL I guess now we have another entry in the "most overpaid players in the NBA" list. The kicker is Jamal Crawford is only a year older than Joe Johnson. So the Hawks declined to give JC a 3 year contact but gave the guy 1 year younger then him a 6 year, 120M one. SMH.
Crawford isn't going anywhere. Not even the Hawks are stupid enough to trade him now. If they aren't doing well at the trade deadline, a contender would be glad to take him off their hands.
Crawford wasn't even with the Hawks until this past season and they didn't accomplish much more this year than they did the previous year.
You must not have watched him on TV before last season, then. The guy shoots under 41% for his career. Last season was his best in a long time at close to 45%.
Yes, I meant his rights to do as he wants (quitting, asking for trades, whining). I wish the league would be more strict on that. Take a "if you don't like it, then leave" (without pay) stance. What's worse is this whole buyout crap. I wished the league would pass a law that says if a player wants a buyout, then THAT player buys out his contract. Isn't that what they do in the Euro league?
I couldn't agree more here. I get so sick of hearing about player X that wants to leave his current team to go ring chasing (or whatever) and so is asking them to pay him 80+% of his remaining contract to leave.
As a team potentially wanting Jamal Crawford's services (Atlanta or otherwise), who wouldn't want to wait until the new CBA goes into effect so they can have the same player at a better value moving forward? Maybe Crawford is an excellent value compared to Johnson, maybe not. Maybe the Hawks are stupid for not extending Crawford, maybe they're not. Kinda doesn't matter. Either way, it's their prerogative. I get where he's coming from, but I don't see how PUBLICLY demanding a trade helps the situation. His trade value drops when other teams know that ATL is desperate to move him, decreasing the odds that a deal goes down. In addition to the CBA thing, who wants to lock in a player who's displayed a bad attitude? I wouldn't want that in my locker room. I'm guessing that, trade or not, Jamal Crawford doesn't get a new deal (or extension) structured nearly as favorably as the one he has now.
Or maybe it was a fluke. I wouldn't be ready to call the guy an efficient scorer or a winner yet coming off one good shooting season and his first trip to the playoffs.
If I were the Hawks I tell Crawford's agent to find a team willing to pay the money he demands AND pay the Hawks a substantial price for the privilege of doing so.
My timing is off then. But I do know he helped them win a great deal of games. I've also seen him play courtside; that's where my opinion is coming from too.
Crawford has skills, but he is 30 and last year was by far the most efficient shooting year in his 10 year career. TS last season = .573, TS for career = .524. Now you might say he finally got it and is expected to continue being efficient, but it might also be a fluke year. And he is at an age, with the NBA mileage, at which players expect to decline physically, so gotta be careful.
