Jordan Crawford Thread

[Sam]

Since Jordan Crawford seems to be the most news-worthy topic in Celtic Land right now, I'm starting a thread devoted to him. Here's an article by A. Sherrod Blakely,

Sam

Crawford will get a taste of 'discipline, winning' with Celtics

February 21, 2013, 8:45 pm

LOS
ANGELES — Jordan Crawford, traded to Boston from Washington on Thursday
for Leandro Barbosa and Jason Collins, finds himself in unfamiliar
territory now -- surrounded by veterans.

How he handles that will go far in determining his role with the Celtics and even more important, his future as an NBA player.

Crawford's talent has never been in question.

It's how he has used that talent -- often selfishly at times -- that concerns many.

In Washington, Crawford was surrounded by a slew of players just as young as he was.

So there was indeed a lack of veteran leadership and accountability throughout his time there.

But he has no excuse now, not with a Celtics team that's brimming
with savvy veterans who have been in just about every situation
imaginable.

"It's a perfect situation for him," C's guard Jason Terry told
Comcast SportsNet. "We have a great veteran group of guys that
definitely take the young guys under our wing. He's young. He's
athletic. He can shoot. So we welcome the talent."

So does Celtics head coach Doc Rivers.

"He's a scorer," Rivers said. "And losing Barbosa who was our scorer
off the bench, we really felt we needed to replace that. We needed
another guard in general. We're hoping he can do that. Obviously I'm
hoping this is a fresh start for him. He's had his good days and his bad
days. We want him to have a lot of good days."

Barbosa suffered a season-ending torn left ACL and sprained MCL injury earlier this month.

Rivers has heard the stories about how Crawford would benefit from the veterans he will be surrounded by in Boston.

"That's what we're hoping for," Rivers said. "At the end of the day,
you're going to have to grow up yourself and play. We're going to give
him every opportunity to do that."

Pierce was pleased that the Celtics added some backcourt depth, but disappointed that it came at the expense of Collins.

"Probably could have used another big man," Pierce told CSNNE.com.
"We got rid of a big man (Collins). I don't know how I feel about that,
especially with KG (Kevin Garnett) playing like 40 minutes a game. Maybe
we'll pick up somebody to relieve some of the pressure off of him."

In the meantime, Pierce will do whatever he can to help the C's improve.

Part of that involves providing veteran leadership to all the players, but especially new guys like Crawford.

While it seems a no-brainer that Crawford will join the C's and
embrace the opportunity to be mentored by players like Pierce, the
Captain understands all too well that it probably won't be that easy.

"When you got a young guy who has been around young players, it's
hard for him to understand discipline; understand winning," Pierce said.
"He hasn't really been around that. He's going to get a taste of it out
here. It's a different pace, a different change; the attitude you have
to have when you're around veteran leadership and winning."

[bobheckler]

RedsArmy.com sometimes offers a column called "Enemy Chatter". This is where they post commentary/opinions of non-Celtic bloggers. Here is some of the enemy chatter about the Crawford trade, from Wizards bloggers. Love where one of the bloggers says his guy just got "Ainge'd". Absolutely disagree with the opinion that Barbosa wasn't giving us punch. He's right, though, Barbosa's out so it doesn't matter anyway.


BNIE: A. Leandro Barbosa wasn’t giving their second unit real punch when on the court, is out anyway and is expiring at the end of the year. Jordan Crawford gives Danny Ainge another rookie who can grease a trade as the Celtics rebuild while giving Doc Rivers a situational player his veteran heavy roster can handle without difficulty and perhaps groom in the Nate Robinson mold. This is all upside for the Celtics. They get younger, a trade asset, and have no reason to expect a drop-off in the on-court product, though losing a bit of crucial front-line depth. Ernie, you just got Ainge’d.

JKhan15: A. Hey, free player! The Celtics need offense, and Crawford can potentially help with that. And they didn’t have to trade away anything of substance to get him. Now the Celtics have a young player on his rookie contract. If he develops, great; if not, let him go. There’s no real downside for Boston here.

Jeff: A, because they essentially gave up nothing for a cheap, capable scorer. He can either help out the Celtics or be packaged in a trade next season. Either way, the Celtics traded two non-assets for one decent asset. Danny Ainge should apologize to Ernie Grunfeld, kind of like how Sollozzo apologized to Michael for having his father shot.

Mike: B+ for me. They get something for nothing, though I do wonder how Crawford will handle playing in that environment. At worst, he can provide what Leandro Barbosa did before he got dealt.


bob


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[bobheckler]

Here's a good story. Oh brother, this could be an interesting ride. Supposedly, during the lockout, Crawford and Rubio were working out with Pierce and KG and Crawford got into it with KG, so KG head slapped him.

That was then, this is now. If Crawford acts like that with KG in this locker room there will be a half dozen players jumping on him.

http://greenstreet.weei.com/sports/boston/basketball/celtics/2013/02/22/irish-coffee-the-day-kevin-garnett-both-slapped-jordan-crawford-barked-at-ricky-rubio/


Remember the NBA lockout? Fun times. All those Rajon Rondo corn hole tosses, Ray Allen golf foursomes and Jeff Green exhibition games (thankfully not just corn hole, foursomes and exhibition). We cared about workouts, too, like those involving Kevin Garnett in Los Angeles. Newest Celtics guard Jordan Crawford was there as well, and they apparently didn't get along so well.

Yahoo! Sports columnist Adrian Wojnarowski (who else?) wrote this in a feature about Ricky Rubio on Nov. 19, 2011 (h/t @DDuggan21):

On this day, everyone was still buzzing over Washington Wizards guard Jordan Crawford’s mistake of talking too much to Garnett a day earlier. When Boston Celtics teammate Paul Pierce tried to do Crawford a favor and push him away, Crawford urged Pierce to let K.G. go.

“I thought they were just kidding,” Rubio says, and maybe Crawford did too.

There are hard lessons to be learned in this league, lockout or not lockout. Eventually, Garnett reminded Crawford about that with a smack upside his head, a reminder to Crawford, Rubio and the rest of them: Elders will be respected.

Garnett has a history of initiating European players in the NBA, and one witness in the gym had recently watched him respond to a Rubio move with the ball by barking, “That’s a traveling here. We don’t do that [expletive] here.” And on and on.


Crawford must have learned his lesson at some point, because Celtics analyst and former KG teammate Brian Scalabrine claimed the latter now "respects" the former's work ethic, which is weird, considering Crawford reportedly didn't always show up to Wizards games on time and "barely tries on defense."



Then again, we heard the same about Garnett's respect for Ryan Hollins, the jettisoned Cavaliers center who for all his effort and athleticism recorded more playoff fouls (29) than either rebounds (27) or points (26) for the Celtics. He's the cautionary tale of believing somehow that Garnett makes players better through osmosis.

Still, Flip Saunders, the only man to coach Garnett and Crawford, said on ESPN, "Jordan Crawford is going to help them. I had him for two years in Washington, and he can really score. There's no question he's a great scorer. He has a lot of confidence. He's a combination of Michael Jordan and Jamal Crawford, because what he believes is that he can score like Michael Jordan. He's said that in the paper, so he's going to give them a punch offensively.

"And I believe that Doc [Rivers] is going to be able reign him in," added Saunders. "The question as always with Jordan Crawford is shot selection: Can he play within a team concept? He's not going to have a choice. I coached KG. KG's not going to let all that too wild stuff go, and so if [Garnett] can get [Crawford] under control, he's really going to help, because he will give them a punch off the bench scoring-wise."

From head slaps to punches. Ladies and gentleman, Jordan Crawford.



bob


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[gyso]

bobh,

I interpreted a differently worded article about the JG-Jordan Crawford incident to mean that the reason that KG respects Crawford was because the latter did not back down from the former during that exchange.

Interpretation - insmackulation, whatever. It gives the media something to write about.

gyso

[bobheckler]

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4702603/nervous-crawford-excited-to-join-cs


PHOENIX -- Jordan Crawford is not short on confidence and nerves are rarely an issue for him on the basketball court. But the 24-year-old guard admitted he got a monster case of the butterflies when he learned he had been traded to the Boston Celtics Thursday.

"I was nervous; I didn’t know how to take [the trade news]," Crawford said after joining the team for its shootaround Friday morning at the United Airways Center. "Boston Celtics -- that carries a lot of weight. I was anxious, nervous, hands sweating -- all that."

The Celtics acquired the third-year guard from the Washington Wizards in exchange for Jason Collins and Leandro Barbosa. Crawford flew from the nation's capital to Phoenix (connecting through Atlanta) and arrived here around 2 a.m. Short on sleep, he took his physical this morning and coach Doc Rivers said he'll be on the floor this evening against the Suns.

"We have no choice," quipped Rivers, whose injury-depleted roster is begging for healthy bodies. Rivers hopes Crawford can provide an immediate scoring punch off the bench with his no-conscious offensive approach.

"Listen, he’s a scorer. Most scorers don’t have a conscious -- and that’s a good thing," said Rivers. "What you try to teach him is the different between a good [shot] and a bad one. But you don’t want to take away –- if he’s a great scorer, great scorers make bad shots. So a lot of times you just live with it, unless you think it’s hurting the team."

What does Crawford expect for a role?

"Just to come in, be myself, compete and help this team," said Crawford. "They are doing a great job, pulling out a lot of wins with a depleted lineup. Just come in and try to help with whatever they need."

Crawford said a veteran locker room on a winning team could help him as a young player. He had a much publicized run-in with Kevin Garnett during an offseason pickup game during the lockout -- Garnett reportedly delivering a little smack to Crawford's head after he ran his mouth too much on the floor.

But Crawford downplayed the incident and suggested he's eager to feed of Garnett's intensity.

"It was never a thing. It was just basketball," said Crawford. "Now we’re on the [same] team, hopefully I can help them."

Added Crawford: "I think, just to see [Garnett's] intensity every game, it should help you get up every game, allow you to bring your best. He’s been doing it for this long, so it’ll be great."

Crawford knows his own confidence is key to carving out a role in Boston.

"My confidence is what got me here, it allows me when I’m struggling to still believe in myself," he said. "And when I’m playing good, to do things to help your team win. My confidence, just in an overall sense, it just helps me get through things."

Crawford will wear No. 27, but suggested it has nothing to do with his draft position (the Hawks pegged him with that pick in 2009 out of Xavier University). Crawford has worn Nos. 55 and 15, but 55 was recently assigned to Terrence Williams and No. 15 is retired for Tommy Heinsohn. With slim pickings for anything with a 5, Crawford went to some arithmetic.

"Seven minus two equals five," explained Crawford. "Five is one of my good numbers."

Crawford said he was actually watching TV when he got word that he had been traded to Boston. He was aware of the rumors from his Twitter feed, but didn't quite believe the news until he got the phone call.

Even as he immerses himself in a new game plan, he's excited about his new situation.

"I think it was time [for a change of scenery]," said Crawford. "It's a great opportunity here and I’m looking forward to being a Boston Celtic."






https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q6NM6jebwPk


bob


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[Sam]

BobH,

Well, so far so good. At least he said all the right things. Here's hoping the Celtics' aura can really influence him to get his act together and forge a nice career by making a difference with this team. Someone try to tell me that the Celtics' name on a player's resumé doesn't carry any weight.

Sam

[k_j_88]

I did feel bad for barbosa, tbh. He always played hard and fit nicely into the system. But the NBA is a business.

[dboss]

KJ I agree ..it is sa tough business so I guess Boston fans should not be pissed off that Allen rejected the Celtics.

dboss

[bobheckler]

Doc said today, after practice, that "Jordan Crawford, right now, is playing with too much of a conscience. Trying to be a ball-mover ... We want him to be a scorer".


bob
So much for backup point guard. I'm surprised at how little emphasis Doc, a former point guard, puts on the position.

.

[Outside]

Bob,

Perhaps without Rondo, Doc is adjusting his philosophy regarding a point guard, so that instead of attempting to replace Rondo's role, he's making lemonade from his crop of lemon point guards.

What I'm referring to is the approach used in offenses like the triangle where there is no one player defined as the point guard. That does several things:

• It spreads the responsibility for ball handling and initiating the offense across multiple players. That prevents a single player who doesn't have the skillset and aptitude of a point guard from being overwhelmed and worn down by that responsibility, being a weakness that stifles the offense, and not contributing to the team in the ways most suited to that player.

• It prevents the defense from keying on a single player as the Celtics' ballhandler and initiator. Putting their best on-ball defender on a sub-par point guard could totally disrupt the Celtics, like the Celtics did to Orlando last year with Bradley on Jameer Nelson.

• It opens opportunities for multiple players to initiate the offense so that the team can better exploit individual matchups that vary from game to game.

If you've got an elite point guard like Rondo, you can structure your offense around that, but if you don't, the distributed approach can work better than trying to plug a non-Rondo into Rondo's role. (This distributed approach isn't unique to the triangle, but that's the example that came to mind.)

I think that's one of the things that has made the post-Rondo version of the team so successful. Rather than forcing Bradley or Terry to be "the point guard," a role they aren't well-suited for, it allows ballhandling and initiating responsibilities to be spread across a host of players -- Bradley, Lee, Terry, Green, Pierce, Crawford, and Williams. That also means that a guy like Crawford can handle some ballhandling chores while still being allowed to do what he does best -- score, and open up the rest of the floor for other players.

I'll bet Doc's proclivity to rely on a traditional point guard is ingrained in his DNA, but I also think this is the right approach to take with the post-Rondo version of the team.

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