Jamal Crawford turned down his player-option for the 2018-19 season, but he wasn't looking to get a raise, but rather reclaim his role as one of the NBA's best sixth men.
During an appearance in Alex Kennedy's The HoopsHype Podcast, Crawford revealed just how this season panned out for him.
“It was tough. It was a big challenge,” said Crawford. “I honestly think this year was the most challenging [season] I’ve had since I’ve been in the NBA, for many different reasons. [My limited playing time] was definitely one of the reasons. I won’t get into the other ones, but that was definitely one of them. It was tough, it really was. I knew I could help more, in terms of us winning. I feel like I could’ve helped a lot more and I’m glad we got to the playoffs, but I feel like it could’ve been a lot better for all of us.”
Crawford has won the Sixth Man of the Year three different times — the most since the award was first introduced in the 1982-83 season. Yet Crawford found himself in a very limited role, playing only 20.7 minutes per game, the least since his rookie year in the league while mustering only 10.3 points through 80 games.
“I’ll just say that we – as in the guys on the bench – absolutely felt like we could’ve brought something to the table and help in some ways,” said Crawford. “As you see with teams in the playoffs, it takes more than five guys [to win]. And Thibs is a smart guy, he understands that as well. But, you know, he likes what he likes and we just had to do the best we could to support [the starters] and try to stay as ready as possible.”
Clearly, Crawford has no intentions of returning to this past role, looking to get back to his sixth man scoring ways with his next team. The 38-year-old has played 79, 82, and 80 games in each of his last three seasons, showing there's still plenty left in the tank, despite his age.
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