Jamal Crawford

[Wurider05]

If Jamal's shot isn't falling (which has been alot lately) what good is he to us? Should he be continued to free lance on offense when his is in a major slump. Its like no matter what he will always get "his shots". How detrimental to the team is that or it that just Crawford being Crawford? I think that its bad business when you can't score and you can't top your man from scoring as well. Is he as bad on offense as we make him out to be?

[MaceCase]

Shooters shoot, it's really that simple. You can't have a player and not allow him to play to his strengths and expect him to succeed. His value is in his ability to get hot at any moment and sometimes shots 1-5 are not enough to determine that yet but he at least has opponents respect him and the threat he might get hot at any moment. To me he does more harm being out there and not shooting than taking shots but obviously if he's reaching a 2-10 shooting night then the coaches should minimize his minutes because the opponents have already realized that his impact is minimal.

[Seano]

If Jamal's shot isn't falling (which has been alot lately) what good is he to us? Should he be continued to free lance on offense when his is in a major slump. Its like no matter what he will always get "his shots". How detrimental to the team is that or it that just Crawford being Crawford? I think that its bad business when you can't score and you can't top your man from scoring as well. Is he as bad on offense as we make him out to be?

No, I would say he truly offers only the one dimension, and when that one dimension isn't working out for him, then he really is about as worthless as tits on a boar-hog out there and is a detriment to the team. But like Crawful says, shooters have gotta shoot. The only way they can help you is by scoring, and absent getting to the FT line (which Crawford is very good at converting FT's, but is not the type of player to get to the line) the only way to do that is by shooting. That can be either a positive thing ala going 8-14 against PHO, or a negative thing, like going 1-9 or 3-12 or 3-11 or 3-10, all of which are shooting lines he's posted over the past month.

One positive thing though is that for a volume shooter, he does seem to be exercising a little more self-restraint during this slump of his. He averaged over 14 shots a game in January, and for the month of February is averaging just over 10 shots per game, maybe because he's realizing that his shot just isn't falling.

To me he is SO one dimensional that his negatives far outweigh his positive contributions out there, but maybe that's just me. I don't know. I'm just really tired of him, and I hope he's no longer with this team next season.

[JTB]

I hate this notion of "I will shoot my way out of it" because it leads to overconfidence and false perception from players. If you aren't making shots and its pretty obvious that night that you aren't making shots nor will you make shots then you should stop shooting and try to help out other ways. Jamal and LD are playing to this stupid old school notion of "letting your shooters shoot" and thinking its just a matter of time before shots start falling. Well maybe it is a matter of just shooting 10 times until your shot starts falling but thats wasting precious possessions throughout the game.

Now its not just LD and Jamal that have this mentality, many other players and coaches in the NBA are like this. But at some point in time these dumbasses will wake up and realize this isn't a good strategy and it actually hurts the team. Especially with our team which has a lot of players who have the potential to put up 20 points. We really should be spreading around shots more efficiently than we currently are, and we should also be cognizant of who is sucking and avoid having them shoot. Typically this problem only happens with Jamal, Joe, and Josh.

I agree and I just want to add that Jamal play is one-sided most games because he isnt a average defender, but I hope the new concept of the team is to play team defense after trading for hinrich. I hope to see Jamal try alot harder on the defense end because of the other hawk players giving it their all. At this time I just want it to rub off onto Jamal if ya know what i mean.

Edited February 27, 2011 by JTB

[RedDawg#8]

well at the same time, if a guy starts out 1-5, he can still finish 6-10 but he won't get there without the belief that the next shot is gonna fall, same as quarterback in football, for every incompletion or interception you have to have a short memory and make the next throw ur best and believe it will bw complete.

now the thing with our players is that they have no problem shooting even if they are off, their issue is not drving the ball and getting easy shots/ft's during slumps. To me that's where their slumps hurt because they don't use bball smarts and get easy shots to get their rythym back. Again like in football, a quarterback will dink and dunk the ball to get his ryhtym before throwin deep again

[Superiorblogman]

He is a one trick pony. Bibby was accused of that but he was not a one trick pony. He was the best clutch shooter, best knockdown shooter, and he could get you into offense. Everything Jamal does is to set himself up to score. Glad to see him gone after this year, wish we had kept Jordan.

[Guest]

The problem with Jamal is not so much that he is a one trick pony...we all know that he is a shooter good or bad...it's when he is at the PG spot where he is less effective. He has the ball dribbling too much, doesn't set up anybody and is more inerested in just shooting in lieu of running the offense.

[gsuteke]

I think Crawford's contract situation got into his head this season. His value peaked after last season and he couldn't keep it up.