Doc talks about Crawford

by **bobheckler** Thu Feb 21, 2013 7:58 pm

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/extras/celtics_blog/2013/02/doc_rivers_talk.html

Doc Rivers talks about new Celtics guard Jordan Crawford

February 21, 2013 06:07 PM 1 By Baxter Holmes, Globe Staff

LOS ANGELES -- With Leandro Barbosa out, the Celtics needed another guard who could score, and they believe they acquired that Thursday by trading for Washington Wizards guard Jordan Crawford. But Crawford's character does raise red flags, as he clashed with Wizards coach Randy Wittman and fell out of the rotation during his time in Washington.

"The good thing and the bad thing I hear about him is his confidence," Doc Rivers said. "You rarely say that, but it’s tough for him there to buy into a role because he looked at himself as, ‘I’m better than them.’ I’m hoping that we don’t have that issue here. Obviously if we do, then it will be a problem."

The Celtics acquired Crawford by trading the expiring contract of injured guard Barbosa and center Jason Collins. Crawford, 24, averaged 13.2 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 3.7 assists in 43 games for Washington this season. Rivers said he doesn't know if Crawford will be with the Celtics when they play the Suns in Phoenix Friday.

"He hasn’t been a great defender, but he’s an athlete," Rivers said. "I always look at an athlete (as) if you’re an athlete, then you can be a defender. That’s one thing I’ve always had no problem with. If you’re not an athlete, that’s an issue. But if you are an athlete, then you can beat people off the dribble and you can hold people from beating you off the dribble."

Rivers lamented the loss of Collins, a little-used veteran center.

"Let me just say this: We lost a very important guy in our locker room in Jason," Rivers said. "You take away that and then you add something else, you just never know with your locker room. That was very difficult for me.

"I protect my locker room. And to let a guy go like that out of your locker room, for me that was hard to do. Really hard. And obviously if Barbosa doesn’t go down, it wouldn’t have happened. But he did go down and we’re had to do something."

Losing a center leaves the Celtics with two true centers in Chris Wilcox and Fab Melo, though Garnett is listed as a center despite that he often plays a power forward position. Rivers said they didn't want to give away a center, but it was the only way that they could ended up getting a guard.

As for how they'll deal with so few centers, Rivers said Garnett will sit a lot more during games.

"Those are the games that will be an issue for us," Rivers said. "We’ll be really small. We may have to add a D-League guy. I would be surprised if Kevin played all three of these games coming up. That puts a lot of pressure on us. It’s what we’re going to have to do."

Rivers said he wasn't sure how they'd add another center, but that they'd try to find one either in the D-League or on the waiver wire when players start getting bought out in the next few days.

There was plenty of speculation around this trade deadline involving Garnett and Paul Pierce, but nothing ultimately happened involving either of them.

"Nothing was really going to happen," Rivers said. "I didn’t think it was. There’s always talk. The difference now between 10 years ago is people know about the talk now. It hasn’t changed, it’s just people know about it now."

Rivers spent the morning playing golf at a course in Bel Air, but he said it was hard to stay focused with everything that was going on.

"It was actually the wrong day to play," he said.

bob

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by **bobheckler** Thu Feb 21, 2013 8:00 pm

More on Crawford, from the Globe:

Jordan Crawford by the numbers

By Gary Dzen, Boston.com Staff

Here's a deeper look at guard Jordan Crawford, whom the Celtics acquired in exchange for Jason Collins and Leandro Barbosa's expiring contract:

-- Crawford averaged 13.2 points in 26 minutes per game for the Wizards this season. Crawford's scoring average would rank third among active Celtics behind Paul Pierce (18.4) and Kevin Garnett (15.0). Rajon Rondo was averaging 13.7 prior to his injury.

-- Crawford is shooting 41.5 percent from the field and 34.5 percent on 3-pointers this season, both career highs. He is averaging 3.7 assists this season but also 2.3 turnovers.

-- Crawford shot 46 percent in 31 games off the bench this season and 35 percent in 12 games as a starter. He has made almost twice as many unassisted field goals (134) than assisted (77). You can view his shot chart for the season on the left.

-- His Win Shares Per 48 Minutes rating of 0.59 would rank 13th on the Celtics, between Jeff Green and Collins.

-- Some weird sample-size shooting numbers: Crawford is 6 for 6 on step-back jump shots and 19 of 21 on runners.

-- A little insight into the kind of personality the Celtics are getting. Here's a story out of Washington about Crawford pouting on the bench during a recent game:

bob

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by **bobheckler** Thu Feb 21, 2013 8:04 pm

Here's the article in the Washington Post about Crawford that is referenced above. It sure doesn't make him look good and absolutely explains why Randy Wittman couldn't wait to get rid of him. I'd like to see him do that on KG's bench.

Jordan Crawford’s bench posture

Posted by Dan Steinberg on February 20, 2013 at 10:41 am

Because the Wizards were losing to the Raptors in a game marred by malfunctioning scoreboards and clocks, some of the focus Tuesday night turned to Jordan Crawford. The onetime sort-of fan favorite has been benched for days, and on Tuesday, fans repeatedly chanted his name, while others studied his posture on the bench.

Via Michael Lee:

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.

Amused by the cheers, Crawford’s teammates looked on as the third-year shooting guard continued to chill, as if nothing was going on. When asked about Crawford’s body language on the bench, Coach Randy Wittman said, “I’m watching the game. I can’t comment on that.”

Crawford didn’t speak to reporters after game, calmly breezing by, gripping his coat before the locker room was open for post-game interviews.

The in-game commentary, though, was amusing.

“Basically, every part of his body is at a 45-degree angle,” Kyle Weidie wrote.

“Jordan Crawford is cold chillin on the bench,” wrote a fan seated behind the closest basket to the Wizards bench.

“Jordan Crawford has basically slid into the stands, he’s that far down the bench,” someone else wrote.

“Jordan Crawford is so relaxed on the bench he looks like he wants to go to sleep,” observed a fourth.

The images appear to back up such descriptions. And at the end of the game, he threw his unused jersey into the crowd.

bob

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by **Outside** Thu Feb 21, 2013 8:13 pm

The difference in attitude and culture between the Washington Wizards and Boston Celtics is miles and miles. If Crawford wanted a new start and is willing to do his part to make that a success, he could hardly have found a better place. We'll see if he's willing to do his part. Like 112288 said, give him some time and see what happens.

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