Haynes: Nets still talking with Jamal Crawford about return

Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports reports that the Nets and Jamal Crawford are talking to each other about a reunion this season. Haynes speculates that Spencer Dinwiddie’s knee injury and upcoming surgery might accelerate those talks.

Talking with fellow NBA writer Seerat Sohi on his Posted Up with Chris Haynes podcast Tuesday, Haynes said Crawford might still wind up with Brooklyn.

Admitting that “I don’t know if the Nets feel like they have to do anything, as far as roster shakeups or roster moves,” Haynes suggested that the Nets and the 20-year veteran have had “conversations.”

“But a guy who was supposed to be on this roster, and that’s Jamal Crawford. Jamal had— what, he had some— he had a hamstring injury during the bubble And that kind of hampered what he was able to do in the offseason,” Haynes noted. “But he’s somebody that they’re still talking to, having conversations. So he can be somebody that they they pick up.”

However, signing Crawford would mean that the Nets would have to drop someone from their roster. Even if the league granted the Nets a Disabled Player Exception for Dinwiddie, the DPE doesn’t carry an open roster spot with it. The Nets currently have a full roster —15 standard contracts and two two-way deals held by Chris Chiozza and Reggie Perry.

Crawford was signed just prior to the Orlando “bubble” and sat the first two games while catching up on his conditioning following a 16-month layoff. Once he got on the court vs. the Bucks on August 4, Crawford showed he still had something left, racking up five points and three assists in six minutes. But he had to leave the game with a hamstring injury and didn’t return in the remaining five seeding games or the playoffs vs. the Raptors. The appearance did him 20 years of NBA service, a milestone only seven other players in league history have achieved.

There were reports in the off-season that the Nets would re-sign Crawford and Crawford himself had positive things to say about the organization, but he remains a free agent.

Haynes was careful to note that he doesn’t see Crawford as a replacement for Dinwiddie just another scorer.

“I’m not saying that he’s going to come in and be a replacement for Spencer Dinwiddie,” he said on the podcast. “But he’s still somebody who can still put the ball in the basket, you know, maybe at limited— in a limited capacity.”

• Posted Up - Will the Nets miss a beat without Spencer Dinwiddie? - Yahoo! Sports