Jamal Crawford for Al Harrington Trade – Fantasy Analysis

The New York Knicks made a pair of trades on Friday that had NBA and fantasy basketball analysts scrambling. Their first trade sent Jamal Crawford to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Al Harrington.

While the main point of this trade for the Knicks was to create more salary cap flexibility in 2010, this trade should be a great fantasy basketball-wise for Harrington owners. There’s a good chance that Harrington will start at center for the Mike D’Antoni Knicks, which will mean a lot of shot attempts — specifically, three-pointers. With his increased minutes and his role moving him to center, he can expect his rebound numbers to also go up. Now is a great time to buy low on Harrington before he becomes much more valuable on the Knicks.

The future for Crawford on the Warriors is much less clear. While in theory Crawford would flourish under Don Nelson, the question is how many minutes will he play. Right now he should get minutes but once Monta Ellis returns, Crawford could getting his playing time pinched. It’s going to be difficult for Nellie to juggle minutes between Crawford, Ellis, Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette, Kelenna Azubuike and the new sensation Anthony Morrow.

As of right now, consider Harrington’s fantasy basketball stock way up and Crawford’s about the same with the possibility it could drop.

Photo: Newscom