I’ve known LeBron for a while, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary to have those kinds of conversations, but I thought it’d be more meaningful to do here, to be honest with you. The Cavs and the Warriors, they’ve been there.
— Jamal Crawford at his introductory press conference
If a 37 year old can recapture the late-career magic that made him Sixth Man of the Year two years ago, Jamal Crawford is a key complementary piece to a winning team. He won’t be the signature point guard, go-to scorer or even the lock-down defender, but he doesn’t need much time to start scoring off the bench and force opponents to double-team him. He played with the Chris Paul-led Los Angeles Clippers for the last five seasons, and the Cleveland Cavaliers or Golden State Warriors would have taken him this season.
“They know what it’s like to win a championship, to play in the finals, and I wanted to embrace the journey to be with these guys,” said Crawford, who signed a two-year, $8.87 million deal with the Wolves. “I feel like having the right mix of veterans and the right mix of young guys and the leadership that we have, who knows how good we can be.
“I want to experience it with these guys and go through the wars and the struggles and just really embrace the journey with these guys. To me, that can be even more gratifying than just going to a team that’s already made and ready to win a championship.”
He felt like now was the right time to come to Minnesota. The Jimmy Butler trade helped. Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins’s development was part of the equation. The new Mayo Clinic practice facility and Target Center renovations didn’t hurt.
“I’ve heard my name tied here over the years with Flip and with McHale and even with Rick Adelman, so it just all came full circle”
But it’s more than that. He spoke with Scott Layden when he was the Knicks vice president and general manager before the 2000 NBA Draft (“I might still be in New York” if he had drafted him, said Layden). He has a relationship with Noah Croom, the Wolves assistant GM and assistant coach Rick Brunson. Perhaps most interesting is his relationship with Wolves owner Glen Taylor, who he has spoken to every time he comes to Minneapolis.
“Yeah, every single time,” he said. “It started my rookie year, and every single time we played Minnesota, we always spoke, so it’s just so funny how things worked out. I’ve heard my name tied here over the years with Flip [Saunders] and with [Kevin] McHale and even with Rick Adelman, so it just all came full circle.”
It’s doubtful he’s been waiting his whole 17-year career to join the Wolves, but he definitely had his contacts. Saunders and McHale are a blast from the past, as are former players like Brandon Roy, Will Conroy and Joe Smith. Ironically, Crawford mentored Zach LaVine, who departed in the Butler trade. Both are Seattle products — Crawford from Rainier Beach High School, LaVine from Bothell High — and LaVine will likely follow in Crawford’s footsteps as a key sixth man of the bench later in his career.
“He was instrumental (in his decision to join the Wolves),” said Crawford. “He was like, ‘Man, it will be perfect for you.’ So he was one of the first people I talked to.”
The two are so close that LaVine felt the liberty to prank him on national television. On a bit for Jimmy Kimmel’s ABC special before the NBA Finals, Crawford believed he was doing a public service announcement for LaVine’s charity “Children Without Hoverboards,” only to find out he had been had in front of a national audience.
“I have to get him back first and then I’ll forgive him. He got me,” he said when asked about the prank. “I thought it would be a little PSA, and the whole world saw it. He’s got what’s coming to him at some point.”
Crawford is just one of many players Thibodeau has brought in with chemistry and leadership in mind. Thibodeau knew Butler and Gibson from his playing days, of course, and led press conferences by talking about how players like Teague and Crawford burned his teams as opponents. He also talked about the playoff experience each player has, and Crawford has played in 69 playoff games. Additionally, aside from knowing just about everyone in the organization, he also played with Jeff Teague, Minnesota’s new point guard, in Atlanta.
“Speed, leadership and he gets inside the paint — he causes havoc getting in there,” said Crawford when asked about Teague’s qualities as a player. “I played with him when he was young, he was a rookie, his first two years. Obviously he’s been an All-Star since then, he’s grown. He’s at a point in his career where he just wants to win as well, so we all have the same initiative.”
On the court, Thibodeau has emphasized versatility, defense and ball movement with each of his free agent acquisitions. He wants athletes that can play multiple positions, commit to being two-way players and pass the ball when they are double-teamed or know a teammate has a better shot. He’s counting on Crawford to not only play at shooting guard, but also handle the ball as a point guard, be willing to be challenged on defense and draw double-teams in order to set up players like Towns and Wiggins.
“We can run a lot of pick-and-roll with him, angle pick-and-roll, things like that. I know he and Jimmy can certainly do it together, because of the passing ability,” said Thibodeau. “But the scoring component, and the playmaking component — that’s the thing you can’t overlook. We have a number of guys that will be double-teamed… [and] the thing is, every time you double-team him, he hits open people. And if you don’t double-team him, he goes off on big scoring nights. That’s gonna put a lot of pressure on defenses.”
That is if he can still be an impact player at age 37. Crawford joins the Wolves at an age where even great players are not what they once were, if not out of the league entirely. He credits eating right, getting the proper rest, working out “and just God, honestly” for his longevity and ability to play 82 games last season — but Father Time gets everyone eventually.
“For me, just a year and a half ago I won the Sixth Man of the Year, and even that year I wasn’t supposed to win, because we added people,” said Crawford. “Our second unit consisted of myself, Austin Rivers, Josh Smith, Lance Stephenson and Paul Pierce. So at that time, I kind of knew I was going to have to sacrifice, so you look at that, my shots minutes are the lowest they’ve been since Year 3. So I can’t sacrifice on one end and say, ‘Hey, you’re not scoring as much on this end.’ It correlates. For me, I’m really, really motivated and excited about this opportunity.”
Thibodeau seems equally excited to have him. If nothing else, it validates that he’s put a decent team together — even though he says he isn’t done yet. Crawford had options, good ones at that, and chose Minnesota.
“I definitely looked at [playing time],” said Crawford, knowing he’s the third wing behind Wiggins and Butler. “It wasn’t just the leadership off the court, but on the court as well. And that’s what makes the whole thing so fun, I thought every base was covered.
“You look at that, looking at where the team is going, the trajectory of it. Like I said, we haven’t been in the playoffs in 13 years, so it’ll be a fun season.”
