Joe Crawford

Joe Crawford - 15 games, 25.8 mpg, 15.2 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 1.1 apg, 0.5 spg, 0.1 bpg, 1.7 TOpg, 41% FG 28% 3PT, 81% FT

[...] Beijing's other imports have been guards, but they have not been successful. They started with Steve Francis, in a saga best explained here. As the numbers can attest to, it didn't end well. Francis was replaced by perennial NBA-cusper Joe Crawford, but he too struggled, and has been released, replaced by ex-NBA player Orien Greene. Greene has yet to make his debut.

Joe Crawford - Crawford went to camp with the Kings, but did not make the team. A month after being waived, he joined up with Serie A strugglers Bancas Teramo, as a replacement for Mike Hall, yet he failed his physical and returned to America, where he has remained unsigned. Crawford appears not to want to get stuck with another year of D-League salaries, which is understandable, yet at this stage it would not be a bad idea. That is, unless he can find a way to return to China.

Crawford's another former Knick who played a smattering of minutes with the team at the end of the 2008/09 season. He spent last year in the D-League, trying to get a call-up back to the big dance again; however, unable to get one, he left the D-League at the very end of the season to get some better paper in China. Crawford averaged 17.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists for the L.A. D-Fenders, alongside 20.7/5.7/2.3 in his tree CBA games with Jiangsu. He's a good all around guard, despite his lack of ideal size, who might stick in the NBA for a year if he can improve his three point stroke. Crawford shot only 29% from three point range in the D-League last season; if he can take a leaf out of his brother Jordan's book, and put 15 points on that, then that call-up might be coming. If Crawford does not make the team, he will return to the D-League and play the waiting game again.

Joe Crawford - Crawford is slightly undersized for a shooting guard at 6'4, could use a slightly better three point stroke (and definitely from the foul line), and is not exactly consistent; he is, however, a talented and versatile scorer, mainly through penetration. Crawford is a former draft pick of the L.A. Lakers, 58th overall back in 2008. Had he been drafted somewhere else, he might have stuck in the NBA by now. He's good.

Joe Crawford fact: Joe Crawford is Hawks draft pick Jordan Crawford's brother. That is all.

- Joe Crawford

Crawford was in camp with the Knicks, yet despite having the guaranteed money advantage over Marcus Landry, Landry beat him to the 14th roster spot. And the Knicks didn't keep fifteen out of training camp, for as we later learned, they were keeping number 15 for Jonathan Bender. Crawford rejoined the D-League - where he will earn about half of the $50,000 the Knicks are paying him not to play - where he was assigned to the L.A. D-Fenders. He is averaging 17.7 points and 3.8 assists per game.