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Jamal Crawford has arrived
Chris Palmer [ARCHIVE]

ESPN The Magazine | January 4, 2013

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Jamal Crawford has been around awhile, but with the Clippers it's as if he has just arrived.
Is it possible for a player to have been in the NBA for 13 years and still seem as if he just came out of nowhere?

Meet Jamal Crawford.

Well, nowhere might be a bit of a stretch. He has actually put together a remarkably unique career: He's one of four players who has scored 50 points with three different teams, is the NBA's career leader in four-point plays, won the Sixth Man Award and is the 2000 draft's career leading scorer.

But his lack of postseason hoops -- just 23 career playoff games -- has had a way of removing Crawford from our line of sight. This season, however, Crawford is making the league take notice by doing things he has never done before in the NBA.

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Crawford's 16.3 points per game is ninth best of his 13-year career but he has never fit better with a collection of players than he does with the Los Angeles Clippers, who are allowing him to play some of the most efficient basketball of his career.

"This is the best team I've ever been on and it's made me a better player," says Crawford. "I'm right in the middle of a deep, talented group of guys who know what they're doing."

Crawford has unexpectedly become one of the best offseason pickups. And for a number of reasons, big and small, he has been a revelation. I enlisted the help of the Clippers' super sub to break down why he's having one of the best seasons of his career.

The Chris Paul Effect
Upon hearing the news that Chris Paul had been traded to the Clippers, Blake Griffin jubilantly and quite famously declared, "It's going to be Lob City." And boy, it has been. The Clippers lead the NBA in alley-oop dunks for the second year in a row and have become must-see hoops TV. But highlights aside, some players who play below the rim have actually benefited much more from Paul than their airborne brethren.

Crawford is one of them.

Paul's impact on Crawford can't be understated. This season a career-best 56 percent of Crawford's field goals are assisted. His previous high was 44 percent in 2011. Paul quickly learned Crawford's comfort zones -- curling off picks for 16-foot jumpers (he's shooting a career-tying-best 52.4 from 10-15 feet) and corner 3s (a career-high 36.7 percent of his 3s are assisted).

"I've never played with someone like him," says Crawford. "He makes the game easy for me."

Crawford's praise of his running mate is effusive and with good reason. Paul's acumen and unselfishness have helped Crawford excel all over the floor. Because Paul is a constant threat to drive, he draws in help defenders, allowing Crawford to find plenty of driving lanes. And he has made the most of them; he's hitting a career-high 71.7 percent of his shots at the rim.

Crawford has played nearly half his minutes with Paul on the court this season (487 with, 474 without). And partly due to Paul's intimate knowledge of Crawford's tendencies, the shooting guard ranks fourth in plus/minus overall. Only Kevin Durant, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker have a better plus/minus. The highest Crawford has ever finished is 45th in his Sixth Man Award-winning season of 2009-10.

He's in the perfect role
Crawford has played many roles in his 13-year career. It began in Chicago, where his coaches wanted to develop him as a big point guard who could score in bunches. But after the Bulls drafted Duke point guard and national player of the year Jay Williams the following season, Crawford temporarily shifted to shooting guard so the two could play together. A motorcycle accident in June 2003 ended Williams' career; Chicago then drafted Kirk Hinrich as their point guard of the future and Crawford eventually found his true calling off the ball. During his four-year stint with the Knicks as a volume shooter, Crawford was primarily a go-to-first option.

In 2007-08, he scored a career-high 20.6 points per game but many came on isolation plays that stunted the already ragged Knicks offense. Just 41 percent of his shots were assisted and Crawford's big numbers rarely translated to wins. In Atlanta. he reinvented himself by coming off the bench and becoming one of the league's most dangerous subs, ultimately winning Sixth Man Award in 2010.

Now in Los Angeles, Crawford is playing something of a hybrid of his New York and Atlanta roles. He's the first man off the bench but is expected to contribute heavily as a fourth-quarter closer and take big shots when needed.

It's a role tailor-made for his shake-and-bake, quick-release skill set.

And he has delivered admirably. Among players with 15 or more games, he ranks third in fourth-quarter scoring average (6.6), behind Bryant (7.9) and Durant (7.4), and ahead of Carmelo Anthony (5.8). Highly regarded closer Paul ranks just 59th with 3.6. This season, in a more controlled offensive structure, his looks come within the flow of the offense and ultimately do more damage. Last season he registered just 16 20-point games. He already has 13. The Clippers are 10-3 in those games.

While head coach Vinny Del Negro has shrewdly started the unspectacular but steady Willie Green at shooting guard, Crawford is called upon to do the heavy lifting when it actually counts. Crawford ranks No. 1 in the NBA in fourth-quarter minutes and has been on the floor in the closing minutes of virtually every close game this season.

Unlike some of Crawford's past coaches, Del Negro has encouraged Crawford to exploit his ability to create shots with the dribble when he's on the floor with the second unit. "Sometimes I'll look over to the bench and he'll just tell me to go," explains Crawford. All in all, his coaches and teammates have conspired to put him in as comfortable a situation as possible.

"I've always been a natural scorer, so this role works with my mentality," he says.

He fits like a glove
Get in where you fit in. Crawford has tried to do that with varying success in his NBA career. Even when he put up quality numbers, the teams he played on sometimes lacked chemistry and balance. In a few stops along the way, his style of play simply didn't fit.

In basketball parlance "fit" is a close cousin of "role." They normally go hand in hand; one generally can't exist without the other.

General managers will tell you fit is almost as essential to success as talent is. Coaches want players who fit into their system and fit well with players around them. Many a player has had his fortunes determined by how well he fit in with the team that drafted, traded for or acquired him through free agency.

Despite his explosive ability to score in numerous situations, Crawford never quite fit as a go-to-first option and now takes comfort in the fact that playing alongside two All-Stars has drawn defensive attention away from him, allowing him to score in bunches without dominating. But more important, it has given Crawford a better appreciation for the shots he's getting.


Jennifer Stewart/USA TODAY Sports
Paul's playmaking skills offer Crawford ample opportunities to score.
"I don't think I need the freedom to shoot 20 shots a game," he explains. "I think I need to be in an environment where I'm getting 12-13 shots. It forces you to be more efficient because your touches are limited. Now for me each touch is more valuable."

With the Clippers he has plugged in beautifully among a collection of experienced veterans, young athletes, a blossoming star forward and the game's best point guard. All this has led Crawford to lose his tendency to force the action and put up shots when a quality look doesn't exist.

"When you're surrounded by so much talent, you feel like you don't have to force things," he says. "I feel so much more relaxed, like I can just go out and play."

A game built to endure
"I'd be the first to tell you if I lost a step," says Crawford with a chuckle, "and the truth is I haven't."

It seems as though the 32-year-old Crawford has access to some sort of fountain of youth that most players would give their shooting hand to take a sip from. Crawford came into the NBA at a wiry 175 pounds; over the years he gradually put on 20 pounds of muscle while fending off unwanted body fat by playing basketball nearly every day in the offseason.

Crawford believes the early arc of his career has led directly to his fresh legs at a point in his career when most players are slowing down.

He played just two years of high school ball and 17 total games in college. In his first two NBA seasons, he played a combined 84 games as a result of an ACL injury. He didn't make the playoffs until his 10th season. All that limited wear and tear on his body.

"I didn't get normal minutes my first couple years in the league," he says. "When I was younger I was mad about it, but I think it saved my body."

He also ices down daily -- even on days off -- going so far as to soak in a cold tub at home. That his game was never built on athleticism means he hasn't had to adjust his approach because of declining ability. The result is a player who still has the quickness and ballhandling skills he came into the league with, but has the benefit of 13 years' experience and the savvy that comes with it. That combination has given the Clippers a surprise weapon that has them firmly in the title chase.

"It's funny how it has all come together," says Crawford. "I feel like I'm hitting my prime."

At just the right time.