Minnesota Timberwolves’ Jamal Crawford on the season, his contract, Jimmy Butler

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Jamal Crawford spoke to HoopsHype’s Alex Kennedy on a variety of topics, including the season in general, his contract option, the Wolves rotation, Jimmy Butler as a teammate, and more.

Jamal Crawford has always been a friend of the media when it comes to granting interviews, appearing on podcasts, and largely being candid in his responses.

After a somewhat trying season with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Crawford fielded a few pointed questions from HoopsHype’s Alex Kennedy. From his nearly career-low minutes load to his upcoming contract option decision to Jimmy Butler as a teammate, J Crossover covered a number of topics.

Kennedy asked Crawford a couple of questions on the season as a whole and whether or not the Timberwolves played to their full potential, as well as what it meant for the fans in Minnesota. Crawford acknowledged that the Wolves sat in the No. 3 seed for “pretty much all year long” but slid when Jimmy Butler sat out 19 games with a knee injury.

Interestingly, Crawford’s response included the phrase “they can kind of build on [this season] for the future” (emphasis mine). It’s been reported that Crawford has already decided to opt-out of his contract (more on that later), and the phraseology here suggests that to be the case.

Crawford was gracious when it came to Timberwolves fans, calling them “good” multiple times and saying that reaching the playoffs for them was “unbelievable” and something that “you don’t want to take for granted”, as Crawford has played in the playoffs for the last several years but fans in Minnesota hadn’t seen their squad reach the postseason in 14 years.

Kennedy prompted Crawford to talk about Jimmy Butler, who was one of the primary reasons that the now-38-year-old guard chose to sign in Minnesota. Crawford’s review is glowing, saying that playing with Butler was “even better than [he] expected”, and that Butler’s work ethic is incredible and he’s a great teammate as well — good for Wolves fans to hear, and it cements what many seem to think about Butler, even in light of how his tenure in Chicago ended just under a year ago.

When it came to the rotation, including both Crawford’s individual lack of playing time (his 20.7 minutes per game was his lowest total since his rookie season) and the heavy minutes load that the starters were asked to play, J-Crossover was much more … diplomatic. He wouldn’t go further than saying that Thibs “is a smart guy” and “likes what he likes”, and that the bench unit as a whole felt as though they had more to contribute.

Here are perhaps his most cryptic comments when it came to the season:

"It was tough. It was a big challenge. 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…"

(When asked if he talked to Thibs about his unhappiness when it came to playing time, Crawford laughed and said “at times…”. And that was that.)

As far as his player option for 2018-19, Crawford stated that he hasn’t made a final descision yet, and he and his wife would discuss moving the kids again, etc.

My commentary: the family side of things, and perhaps the financial side (it seems unlikely that someone will pay him more than $4.5 million on the open market) are the only two reasons why Crawford wouldn’t opt out of his deal.

He obviously wants more playing time and didn’t appear too fond of playing for Tom Thibodeau, and there is surely another playoff team out there that would want him to play larger part in their rotation.

From the Wolves side of things, Crawford leaving is far from the worst thing. His poor defense and penchant for tough, mid-range jumpers didn’t exactly help the second unit, and other than a couple of patented Jamal Crawford Hot Streak games (the home opener against Utah back in October comes to mind) that he practically won single-handedly, Crawford was a net negative on the season.

Next: The Timberwolves have an Andrew Wiggins problem

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming weeks. We’ll have any concrete news on Crawford’s future — and how the Timberwolves might plan to replace his role in the rotation — as it surfaces.