J Crawford: Season Opening Starting PG?

[ImShakHeIsShaq]

I'm not saying Craw can't dish out a few assist but the PG has to run the team, Craw is better at running himself and not in control enough to run a team. Craw is your starting PG when you have someone like LBJ or a younger PP, where they're the real ones running the offense. Jeff is good but I don't see him (yet) controlling a team like those guys. Again, I like Crawford but just b/c he can dish doesn't make him capabable of being this team's starting PG or PG at all. I don't want any of the guys outside of RR and Pressey (if he can play with the big boys) being our starting PG anyway... we may need to find someone else if RR can't go but I'm not scared of letting Lee or AB do it until RR is ready to go... if he is not ready for a while, Pressey better be or we need to get someone like TWill from the scrap heap! If Craw is the starting PG, I could see a lot of the guys getting very upset with him a lot then destroying chemistry or chances to gain it. I just don't think he is stable enough to get these young guys to follow his lead!

[hwangjini_1]

Both Crawford and Lee were better at the point than Bradley IMO; however Bradley's lack of size makes it important for his development to at least give it another try. So will be interesting to see what the rotation is and who gets the call. Crawford and Bradley backed by Pressey and Brooks would be my guess. Pressey and Crawford both have some 3pt range. Will see if Brooks has improved this part of his game.

crawford has 3 point range? please define "range" as you are using it. i ask since the stats show that he shot 32% on his 3 pointers last year. that means around 120 other nba players were better than crawford at 3 pointers. let that soak in....120 other players were better at 3 pointers, and centers dont count. 

the league average was 35.9 %  and crawford's 32%. 

put another way, 27 nba TEAMS were better at making 3 pointers as TEAMS than crawford.

and it is not just long range shots that befuddle poor jcraw. crawford shot 41.% on his field goals. the nba average for FG % last season was 45.3%. rondo shot 48%. crawford is a poor shooter.

crawford has talents. but shooting accurately is not among them.

this also means that for crawford to score he has to be a volume shooter. if i were to make a list of traits i would want in my point guard, volume shooter would not be among them.

but let's look at his assists since the discussion here is for him as pg. when compared to SG only (his peer group), his is ranked # 15 in assists with 4.2/48 minutes. that is fine.

his assist to turn over ratio was 1.6. among shooting guards he ranks #15. again, that is fine. indeed, he ranked 3rd on the celtics in assists.

the stats show he might be able to be a credible point guard in terms of assists, though not among the top talents. but his shooting/scoring is a problem for a pg.

but just to be fair, crawford shot better - ever so slightly - than bradley at BOTH fg and 3 pointers.

[Rick Robeys Return]

In further support of JCraw, as an offensive player at PG, in comparison to AB:

AB: AST %: 11.3 - career;  11.6 - last year

JCraw AST %: 21 - -career; 19.4 - last year


AB: TO % (per 100 plays) : 13.9 - career; 12.6 - last year

JCraw: TO % (per 100 plays) : 13.7 -career; 15.5 - last year

**Assist Percentage; an estimate of the percentage of teammate field goals a player assisted while he was on the floor.

Source: http://www.basketball-reference.com/

[gar]

Thought Lee had better assist numbers; but Crawford's numbers are much better and best of any guards of our guards not named Rondo. Pressey is an unknown quantity; but played well in Summer League. Would love for them to make a trade for a vet PG; but they are being patient - which is fine. Will just have to see who steps up.

[green147]

I think at this point the Celts should waive him. Since they're under the luxury tax, there's no point in having him here. He's immature and has never really embraced the Celtics as the fresh start he could have. I would rather see AB, Brooks and CLee get burn, then watch this guy. If you've read the ESPN article on Bradley (and how awesome of a person he is), then read J-Crawford's twitter (notably the Lamar Odom comment), you can understand he has no place on this rebuilding team. He has all the talent, heck his stats are comparable to Eric Bledsor, but he really just doesn't "get it."

[Surferdad]

As a reminder, Jcraw did play the point for the Wizards, filling in for John Wall when he was hurt. And he does have a couple triple doubles (ten+ assist) to his credit...

And eventually they were so tired of him that they were willing to give him away for nothing....

Whatever.  The point is that Crawford can play point for a limited run here without hurting the team too much. I too would really like for AB to only play SG but my guess is Bradley-Lee is the backcourt to start the season. Then bring in Crawford as the backup PG.

[Vermont Green]

I still think Bradley will figure out how to play the point (it took Chauncy Billups about 5 years to figure it out).  This is a great opportunity to put AB out there to work on it.

Until Rondo is back or after he is traded, I say start Bradley at PG and then you can play Crawford off the bench at PG if you want to showcase him.

This way, everyone wins, even if we lose.

[dark_lord]

j crawford as our starting pg?!?! 

[Rick Robeys Return]

I still think Bradley will figure out how to play the point (it took Chauncy Billups about 5 years to figure it out).  This is a great opportunity to put AB out there to work on it.

Until Rondo is back or after he is traded, I say start Bradley at PG and then you can play Crawford off the bench at PG if you want to showcase him.

This way, everyone wins, even if we lose.

I wish this were true. But I think that forcing AB to play the point last year has actually set him back in a variety of ways, and hurt his confidence to boot. Not good. And not an experiment to repeat.

Im not saying having JCRAW start is a great plan going forward for the Cs. Just that it might be the best plan -barring a showing of consistency and controlled play from Pressey - until Rondo returns. Not only best for the play on the floor, but best for the prospects of unloading JCraw and getting something back.

[LatterDayCelticsfan]

Two suggestions. We break the offensive sets down to the point anybody that can catch the basketball and bounce it can be the `point guard.` Or we go point guard by committee.

[Galeto]

I could see Stevens going with Crawford at point if Rondo's out.  Crawford's a very talented passer and played some point with Washington last season.  He has the skills to play the position if not the mindset.  If the alternatives are an undrafted rookie and Avery, Crawford might be the best option.  The Celtics could get away with Avery nominally playing point because Pierce, Terry and KG were the ones who ran the offense.  Without that trio and Rondo, they can't get away with such a limited ballhandler and playmaker like Avery masquerading as a point guard.  Sure it was one game but remember when Pierce was out and Bradley and Green were the playmakers against Charlotte?  They got shellacked by the worst team in the league.

The only point-guardish thing about Avery is his size.  Otherwise it's a ridiculous notion based on his skill level.  Billups at least played point in high school and college and had the handle and vision of one.  His figuring it out was more about becoming an ultra efficient scorer who scores on threes and cheap ways of getting to the line than about learning how to run a team.  Taking their size out of it, Bass is as good a candidate as Avery to play point.

[fitzhickey]

Crawford's a very talented passer

Where did this come from??

[fitzhickey]

j crawford as our starting pg?!?! 

TP for the Aussie icon

[D.o.s.]

Crawford's a very talented passer

Where did this come from??

No one's going to confuse him for Rondo (and we're probably all really spoiled there whenever someone pairs 'talent' and 'passing'), but he's certainly got the skillset.

Like Galeto said, his problems seem to be mental. Best case scenario I think would be him honing his game and developing into a Terry/Barbosa type.

[manl_lui]

Crawford's a very talented passer

Where did this come from??

No one's going to confuse him for Rondo (and we're probably all really spoiled there whenever someone pairs 'talent' and 'passing'), but he's certainly got the skillset.

Like Galeto said, his problems seem to be mental. Best case scenario I think would be him honing his game and developing into a Terry/Barbosa type.

that is a good point. The definitely has talent and is aggressive, no doubt about it. He just needs to get his head on straight. I think he has the potential to be an offensive spark off the bench.