Daily Herald
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Jamal Crawford won't necessarily consider himself part of the Bulls this summer until something changes.
He is planning to put his home in Libertyville up for sale, just to be ready for anything once he becomes a restricted free agent on July 1.
"It's going to be an interesting summer," Crawford said after Tuesday's practice at the Berto Center. "I'm really looking forward to it, just to see how things shake out - if I'm here, if I'm not."
Crawford knows, though, that his status won't bring complete freedom. As a restricted free agent, the Bulls will be able to match any offer he receives from another team.
The 6-foot-5 guard has bigger fans in the world than Bulls general manager John Paxson. But it wouldn't be a wise move for the Bulls to let Crawford walk away with nothing in return.
"I feel like I'm in a win-win situation," Crawford said. "I'll be able to explore my options and go from there."
Crawford has been benched a few times in recent weeks. Last Saturday's loss to Miami was understandable. Crawford felt ill that day and hit just 1 of 10 shots.
On March 27 in Atlanta, however, Crawford hit 5 of 11 shots and the man he was guarding (Bob Sura) didn't do much. Still, Crawford sat for the final 19 minutes.
"It isn't always shooting with me," said Bulls coach Scott Skiles, who is clearly tired of playing-time questions. "Like we have many times, I go to the bench and shuffle the deck and see if we can get something going."
Crawford doesn't think such episodes will hurt his value this summer. Overall, he's averaged 16.9 points and 5.2 assists in his fourth NBA season, while shooting 38.6 percent from the field.
He's quick enough to get past most defenders and can shoot the lights out when he's on. But Crawford still needs work on shot selection and defense.
"I've shown enough this year where people can judge me," he said. "Good or bad, I've shown enough. When the season's over, I'll have played 80 games. I only missed two games when I fell on my neck and I played 35 minutes a night.
"If I'm sitting out a game here or there, I don't think that's enough for them to say, 'It's for this reason.' I mean, I was never a problem on my team. I matured a lot. I think everybody's noticed that."
Crawford, 24, recently dumped agent Arn Tellem and may return to his original NBA agent, Seattle-based Aaron Goodwin. Whoever is making the sales pitch, Crawford wants to emphasize his improvement this season.
"I'm going to improve even more next year," he said. "My first year, I didn't play a lot. Second year I was hurt. Third year I didn't start playing until the second half of the year (after backing up Jay Williams). This is my first full year where I've played. It only gets better from here, I think."
Crawford said he has no salary figures in mind for this summer. It is conceivable that he won't get an offer sheet from another team.
Of the teams with salary-cap room, some (San Antonio, Los Angeles Clippers) are in good shape at guard, while others (Denver, Utah, Phoenix, Atlanta) are young teams that might prefer a veteran free agent.
The rest of the NBA teams are over the salary cap and can only offer the mid-level exception, worth about $5 million. The Bulls figure to match that, so why bother making a formal offer?
Atlanta's Jason Terry received a three-year, $25-million offer from Utah last year, which the Hawks matched. That's a sum the Bulls probably wouldn't match, but it may be a long shot that any team would go that high for Crawford.
Crawford hasn't played for winning teams, but that didn't stop Denver from making Andre Miller a large offer last year. Crawford thinks he might get more interest this summer than people expect.
"I've improved all areas of my game, so I don't see why I wouldn't get (an offer)," he said. "It's just going to be an interesting summer."
