Jae Crowder Hoping For Return To Celtics But Will Test Free Agency

Jae Crowder does not want his tenure with the Boston Celtics to end after just 57 games. But he also wants his paycheck to represent his value.

Crowder, who made less than $1 million this season, is set to hit restricted free agency July 1. Although both team and player have expressed interest in inking a new contract, the 25-year-old forward is doing his due diligence.

“Of course you want to find out what your value might be,” Crowder last week told the Boston Herald. “Time will tell that. I’m talking to my people and others, and everything will eventually show. My worth will be revealed. But I’m confident in myself and my team.”

When Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge discussed the team’s four impending free agents at his season-ending news conference, Crowder was the only one he said with certainly the team would pursue this summer.

“Rather than going individual by individual, I would just say that we like all of them to some degree,” Ainge said during that April 30 meeting with reporters. “Some of it’s just going to be dependent on numbers and roster spots and (the) draft and trades and everything else. So, I just can’t emphatically say anything about anybody other than I can emphatically say that we will definitely (extend a qualifying offer to) Jae Crowder, which I think it pretty obvious. But other than that, the unrestricted free agents, it’s uncertain. We do like each one of them, and we’d welcome any one of them back at the right price.”

Qualifying Crowder would give the Celtics the opportunity to match any contract the forward is offered.

“The feeling of me coming back to Boston is mutual, from what I can tell,” Crowder told the Herald. “I just hope we can get something done. But I do get a good feeling from the team.

“… Free agency is approaching quickly, and I’m sure I’ll be talking to Danny soon. As I’ve told you guys, the second half of the season was something special to be a part of. I saw it as something that was going in the right direction for me.”

Crowder averaged 9.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.0 steals in 24.2 minutes per game for the Celtics this season after being acquired from the Dallas Mavericks in the Rajon Rondo trade.

Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images