Jordan Crawford Finds His Inner Point Guard

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/celtics/2014/01/02/jordan-crawford-brad-stevens-boston-free-agency/4296881/



Jordan Crawford finds his inner point guard for Celtics
Sean Highkin, USA TODAY Sports 9:19 p.m. EST January 2, 2014



Boston Celtics guard Jordan Crawford has emerged this season for surprising playoff contender
Shot-happy off-guard has taken point guard duties with Rajon Rondo out and thrived for Brad Stevens
Crawford is free agent this offseason and has earned himself money with recent play

CHICAGO — Jordan Crawford, it appears, has found a home.

The shooting guard, who has bounced around to four teams in his short career, is in his second stint with the Boston Celtics. And for the first time in his career, he is putting up the numbers to earn some staying power.

"I like getting to play every night," he told USA TODAY Sports while sitting courtside at the United Center before the Celtics' Thursday night game against the Chicago Bulls. "I'm leading the team and getting everybody involved in the offense. It's just a bigger role."

Crawford is scoring 13.6 points a game and, despite being a natural shooting guard, is dishing out 5.4 assists as the starting point guard while Rajon Rondo's surgically repaired knee heals.

"He's done a good job," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. "Like anybody else, he has his moments of things he can improve on, but he's really done a good job."

The Celtics weren't expected to be contending for a playoff spot this year. After trading future Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in June, 2013-14 was intended to be a rebuilding season. But under Stevens and Crawford, the Celtics are off to a surprising start, holding on to the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

In his first three seasons as a pro, Crawford had a reputation as a gunner, a wildly talented scorer who could shoot his team into or out of a game, but who did the latter far more often. Now he is a leading candidate for the Most Improved Player award.

Crawford's shot-happy style of play hasn't always made him a favorite of his coaches. After he was traded to Boston from the Washington Wizards at the 2013 trade deadline, then-Celtics coach Doc Rivers said he would put Crawford on his "all-scare team."

Rather than scaring his own coach, Crawford now is giving opposing coaches nightmares.

"He's always been an explosive guy, a guy you're concerned with when you come into the game," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. "It doesn't take much to get him going. And sometimes, even if he doesn't have a good game going, if he knocks one or two shots down, he'll get real hot real fast. He's a guy that you always have to pay attention to."



bob



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I've said many times that the past isn't the present. Well it's also true that the present is not the future. Some people relish landing on him repeatedly for not being a complete point guard, basically tempering almost every single comment on his successes with an equivalent comment on his weaknesses.

I still believe players should be evaluated more in terms of their strengths than their weaknesses. The critical factor for any given player is whether the value of their strengths seriously outweighs the team's ability to offset the negatives of his weaknesses.

The strength of Jordan Crawford will not be at point guard. But this is a year of development. While many fans seem focused on why he isn't a better fill-in point guard, I'm more interested in how he may be developing from the experience of this season as a more valuable shooting guard—either for the Celtics or in trade.

Based on what I've seen, I believe Jordan could become a very good sixth man with a specialty of generating quick points and being a momentum builder.

• He may not run the best fast break as a PG, but he can run in transition as a SG, and he can finish well—whether slashing or in transition or occasionally as an acrobat.

• He definitely has the ability to create his own shot (as witness the fact that more than 80% of his field goals are unassisted). Who else on the Celtics is really good at that?

• While he'll never be the greatest PG, his experience at that position could make him one of the better-passing shooting guards in the league—perhaps taking some pressure as ball distributor off Rondo so Rondo won't so predictably be the main ball distribution threat on the team.

• He's not a great defender at PG and most likely wouldn't be a much better defender at SG. But, at SG, he'll at least not be defending against so many little speed merchants but against opponents who are more likely to be his size and little (if any) more fast than he is.

• But, most of all, he can impose his will on opponents, which is one of the best prerequisites of a sixth man. His little twirl-jumper in the lane is virtually unstoppable. His ability to score from deep—even under pressure in the clutch—can be a valuable commodity in the league—especially given his fearlessness and confidence in the shot.

• He's one of the best Celtics at spacing the floor, moving with or without the ball, and swinging the ball. Those are rare commodities on this team lately.

• His activity on the floor often puts him in position to grab a rebound as Brad continues to emphasize gang-banging on the boards with the bigs blocking out and the "smalls" sneaking in for rebounds.

• In a pinch, he can perform adequately as a backup PG. Yes, he's not great as a floor general, and he starts the offense too far out and dribbles too much. But some of the latter is due to the lack of movement and spacing among teammates which Brad, not a fill-in PG, is responsible for correcting.

• As far as I know, he's an accepted teammate who has not caused problems in the locker room. (Of course, as soon as I post that, he'll probably commandeer a howitzer and blow Danny's house to bits.)

He's not a perfect player and probably never will be; and he could very well be an ex-Celtic sooner rather than later. But, in less than half a season, he has made rather dramatic strides from his previous incarnation that could position him as a more-than-competent SG/sixth man and occasional combo guard in the future. In the meantime, I believe that those who castigate him at every opportunity have the wrong perspective on his possible long-time value.

Sam