Ex-Celtic Jordan Crawford Signs With Chicago Bulls

Jordan “Steez” Crawford may have FINALLY found a home in the NBA. According to Yahoo Sports’ Shams Charania, Crawford has signed a training camp deal with the Chicago Bulls. While the deal is non-guaranteed, Celtics fans know that in the right situation, Crawford has a place in this league.

Crawford, drafted 27th overall by the Hawks in 2010, was never given a fair chance to succeed in Atlanta. After just 16 games, Crawford was traded to the Wizards – along with Mike Bibby and Maurice Evans – for Kirk Hinrich. While Crawford was a mere throw-in in this minor trade (it was a salary dump for the lottery-bound Wizards), he’d end up playing the most minutes of the trio sent to Washington.

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After a promising start, Crawford’s welcome in Washington burned out and soon earned himself his chucker reputation. He shot a dismal 40.2% from the field and 29% from the three-point line in his 133 games with the Wizards. If there was any doubt before, it became clear that he wasn’t part of Washington’s long term plans when they drafted SG Bradley Beal third overall in the 2012 draft.

Behind Beal in the depth chart, Crawford’s efficiency actually increased from the bench. However, it didn’t change the fact the Wizards were still looking to trade him. On February 13, 2013, the Wizards traded Crawford to the Celtics for a pair of expiring contracts: Jason Collins and an injured Leandro Barbosa.

Crawford’s first season with the Celtics didn’t go so well. An embarrassing choice of socks and petty bout of trash talk with Carmelo Anthony initially dominated people’s perception of him in Boston. Once the 2013 offseason began, Celtics fans begged Ainge to trade him. Yet, nobody appeared willing to take him off our hands.

After the major 2013 roster overhaul had been completed, the Celtics were left with a gang of misfits, totally devoid of a healthy point guard (Rajon Rondo was recovering from his ACL tear at this time). Stevens initially opted to use Avery Bradley at point guard for the first four games but he clearly wasn’t the answer since the team had started 0-4. Brad Stevens’ first brilliant move as the Celtics head coach was starting Jordan Crawford at point.

Prior to the 2013-2014 season, Crawford had always behaved as a ball-dominant scorer. What Brad Stevens asked Crawford to do was to transform into a ball-dominant distributor. It worked. Stevens recognized Crawford needed to the ball in his hands to succeed so he found a way to capitalize on his strengths for the betterment of the team. Stevens also saw something seemingly nobody else had seen before: a natural play-maker. Crawford injected that uninspired 2013-2014 Celtics with a dose of life it was totally missing.

In the end, there was no place for Crawford on a rebuilding Celtics team. To this day, the team is still rebuilding. At the time, the Celtics were hoping to land a high lottery pick and therefore, Crawford was expendable. He proved himself to be an asset when Ainge was able to flip him to Golden State for an expiring contract (Joel Anthony), a protected first round pick and second round pick.

With Golden State, coach Mark Jackson had Crawford regress back to his chucking ways by deploying him as a bench scorer. Any progress Crawford had made in Boston had been erased with the Warriors. As a result, he failed to land himself an NBA contract following the 2013-2014 season. Bizarrely, in Crawford’s last NBA game before leaving the league, he scored a career-high of 41 points.

After receiving zero NBA offers last offseason, Crawford signed with Xinjiang in the Chinese Basketball Association. His season was cut short following an eye-injury that would return him stateside. In an attempt to return to the NBA, Crawford played six games for the Fort Wayne Red-Ants.

While Crawford has to prove himself once again, the Bulls seem to have a new back-up point guard every season who overperforms. In the highly-likely event of a Derrick Rose injury, the Bulls need as much depth at point guard as possible. Hopefully, Crawford makes the team and newly-hired Bulls coach, Fred Hoiberg uses him as a distributor – not a gunner off the bench. If not, we can expect Crawford out of the league once again.

But maybe, there’s a place for Crawford in Boston later down the road. I know, I for one, would welcome him back with open arms.

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