Fresh off winning the NBA’s Teammate of the Year award, could Jamal Crawford find himself with a new set of co-workers in Golden State? (AP)

Provided all goes according to plan with the opt-out and re-up of Kevin Durant, the Golden State Warriors will have the core of their two-time-defending NBA championship-winning team secure before the league’s summertime free agency bonanza gets well and truly nuts. But with five veteran reserves from last year’s team set to hit unrestricted free agency — big men David West, Zaza Pachulia, JaVale McGee and Kevon Looney, as well as swingman Nick Young — the champs will have some roster spots to fill. And with a new KD deal sending the already expensive Dubs even deeper into luxury-tax territory, you’d wager general manager Bob Myers will be looking to fill at least some of them by shopping in the bargain bin, looking for fits on veteran’s minimum salaries.

As Myers and the rest of the Warriors’ braintrust prepares their shopping list, they’re apparently getting input from the guys who played the biggest roles in winning three of the last four titles. The name on their lips? Jamal Crawford, the three-time Sixth Man of the Year, who opted out of the final year of his contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves earlier this month to enter unrestricted free agency.

Draymond Green, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry are all Jamal Crawford supporters

From Marcus Thompson III of The Athletic:

Last year, a vouching from stars Draymond Green and Kevin Durant, and coach Steve Kerr, led to the Warriors taking a flyer on Nick Young. This year, an even stronger push is being made for Jamal Crawford.

Green and Durant are already lobbying. Stephen Curry is on board. Some of the assistant coaches want him, too. It will be enough to get Myers on the phone with Crawford’s agent, Aaron Goodwin, when the free agency period begins at 9 p.m. [Pacific Time, 12 a.m. Eastern] on Saturday.

As you might expect, the 38-year-old guard — who just wrapped up his 18th season in the NBA but has yet to make it past the conference finals — seems like he might also be down for for a return to the Bay Area (he played 54 games with the Warriors during the 2008-09 season) to link up with the sport’s most dominant team. ESPN’s Zach Lowe reports that there’s “some mutual interest between” player and team on a minimum deal that, for a player with 10-plus years of service time, would pay him just under $2.4 million for next season.

The big question: How much is Jamal Crawford looking to make?

Should Crawford decide he’s looking for more than the minimum — remember: he just declined a $4.5 million option — that could make a pairing tough to square. Every dollar teams spend over the tax line carries with it an incremental penalty; the higher your team salary goes, the higher the dollar-for-dollar penalty. If you’re more than $20 million over the tax line, each dollar you spend costs you $3.75 in tax payments. If you’re $25 million over, it’s $4.25. Go $30 million over, it’s $4.75.

As detailed by Anthony Slater of The Athletic, using the taxpayer midlevel exception (estimated at $5.3 million for next season) on a player rather than a minimum-salary slot would cost Warriors ownership an additional $21.6 million in taxes. You’d understand Joe Lacob getting green around the gills at the idea of writing that kind of check for an ostensible eighth man — the core four of Curry, Durant, Green and Klay Thompson, whichever center lands in the starting lineup, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston — who will turn 39 the month before next year’s playoffs.

How Jamal Crawford might fit with the Warriors

Whatever the price point, there are on-court concerns that come with hitching your wagon to Crawford. As fun as he can be to watch with the ball in his hands — and man, can he put on a show — Crawford is an inveterate shot-jacker, standing as one of only a half-dozen reserves last season to average more than 22 field-goal attempts per 100 team possessions, according to Basketball-Reference.com.

While his makes can be thrilling, they’re also not nearly as frequent as you’d like from a player eating up such a large share of the offense. Crawford shot just 41.5 percent from the field and 33.1 percent from the 3-point arc last season; in terms of effective field goal percentage, which accounts for 3-pointers being worth more than buckets inside the arc, Crawford ranked just 92nd among the 106 players who took at least 700 shots last year.