nate33 wrote:Guards rarely improve their shooting percentage by much once they get to the league. I think Crawford can improve as a player by avoiding so many bad shots, but even if you eliminate his bad shots, he's still only a marginal player.
If Crawford ever becomes anything more than a volume scorer with below average efficiency, I'd be shocked. That's not to say he has no role in this league. A modestly below-average scorer can help a bad team. I don't think he can help a good team though.
Nate -- the observation about FG%? Is that an impression thing, or did you research it? I would guess you are right, but it'd be interesting to know more about this empirically.
Yup, a bad player can help a bad team -- if the team's other players are even worse!
But you can (or should be able to!) improve a bad team much more quickly than you can improve a bad player.* So, as the Wizards improve, Crawford is likely to become more of a problem not less. Even if he improves some.
You have to apply the same perspective to Wittman's remark about Crawford's 3 good practices. How bad were his practices last year I wonder?
*One way to make a bad team better quickly? Replace its bad players with good players. Actually, that's not "one way," it's the only way!