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Reports: Wizards agree to trade Jordan Crawford to Celtics

The Wizards have reportedly traded guard Jordan Crawford. (Joe Murphy/Getty Images)

The Wizards have reportedly traded guard Jordan Crawford. (Joe Murphy/Getty Images)

By Ben Golliver

The Wizards have agreed to trade guard Jordan Crawford to the Celtics for guard Leandro Barbosa and center Jason Collins, according to Yahoo! SportsESPN.com and the Boston Globe.

Crawford, 24, is averaging 13.2 points, 3.7 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game this season while shooting 41.5 percent from the field. He handled the ball a bit when John Wall was out of the lineup with a knee injury, albeit with mixed results. Crawford joins a depleted Boston backcourt that lost All-Star guard Rajon Rondo and Barbosa to season-ending knee injuries. Crawford is in the third year of his rookie contract and Washington picked up his fourth-year option in October. He will make $1.2 million this season and $2.2 million in 2013-14.

Reports in recent days suggested that Crawford wanted out of Washington, where his role had diminished. He didn't play in any of the team's last four games and made news for his demeanor on the bench during Tuesday's loss to Toronto, as The Washington Post reported.

During a game in which the Wizards struggled to shoot and score, Crawford never got a chance to contribute and appeared disengaged as he wrapped a towel over his head, tucked it into his shirt and leaned low on the bench as if he was hiding. He yawned, cracked a few jokes, and had his embarrassing DNP-CD highlighted when some fans began chanting his name for almost a minute at the end of the third quarter.

Crawford hit a nice game-winner last month. The 2010 first-round pick is best known for 2011 comments in which he said that he "feel[s] like I can be better than Michael Jordan."

Barbosa, 30, averaged 5.2 points and 1.4 assists in 12.5 minutes before going down with an ACL injury earlier this month. Barbosa is on the books for $1.2 million this season. Washington's logic here is difficult to determine: The Wizards must have concluded that Crawford wasn't worth the headache and/or worth playing in the final year of his rookie contract. Rarely do you see rotation players on rookie deals dumped without some measure of compensation, even a second-round pick, in return.