Let's Discuss Jamal Crawford

[mkwest]

I was curious about 4th quarter performance with JJ having more responsibility over the last couple of months. I looked up the individual splits for both JJ and Jamal. I came in here to share some of that, but og15 had already laid it all out and then some.

Jamal's game is like a wave. There's going to be highs and lows or crests and troughs. There's going to be days when he's frustrating for us to watch and they're going to be those days when he's frustrating the hell out of opposing fans. I definitely want him back and hope that he'll be able to get a few games under his belt before the postseason begins.

[mattd13]

I would also like to see jamal back. not only is he a much better player than Austin, he can be a game changer sometimes. the problem is, as most have stated, he needs to be on short leash and only play in crunch time if he is playing vey well. I do not know what it is but there is something about Austin that just makes me uneasy.

[mkwest]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ArashMarkazi/status/583100640240508928[/tweet]

[Quake Griffin]

coulda used him off the bench tonight.

no more whining from me about Mally Crawf.

[mttwlsn16]

I think a decent amount of the hate Jamal gets here is bc of how Doc uses him. If Jamal can play w the bench and be the go to scorer, while occasionally spelling CP and JJ w the starters, I don't think he would catch anywhere near the **** he does.

GS game would be a perfect example. Bench blew a nice big lead. At least if Jamal is out there he more times than not at least counter punches some of the opposing teams runs when our bench is in.

Can't be worse.

[LACtdom]

I think a decent amount of the hate Jamal gets here is bc of how Doc uses him. If Jamal can play w the bench and be the go to scorer, while occasionally spelling CP and JJ w the starters, I don't think he would catch anywhere near the **** he does.

GS game would be a perfect example. Bench blew a nice big lead. At least if Jamal is out there he more times than not at least counter punches some of the opposing teams runs when our bench is in.

Can't be worse.

100% agree. There are plenty of times when Jamal SHOULD play with starters but sometimes Doc puts him in when we just need defence and we are left scratching our head. Since Doc leaves DJ in during hack-a-DJ and tells DJ not to worry and just get stops, I wonder if he tells Jamal to just do his best on defence and trusts that his offence will be worth it.

[mattd13]

agree totally. hope doc adheres to this idea. I am ready for Jamal's return. Austin is a quick guy but he is just so lost.

[Dynamix]

Him returning just before the playoffs worries me quite a bit. He wasn't that hot before the injury, so it will be a challenge to get his groove back in such short time. Unfortunately our bench is such that we can't really afford not to use him. I hope he gets to play in at least 4-5 regular season games.

[Neddy]

use him strictly with the second unit and we will be fine. if he is used with the first unit, let him be primarily a spot up shooter and for pete's sake dont play him at 3 against what we are gonna face in the playoffs there.

porkland = Batum
Spurs = Leonard
Dallas = Parsons
houston = Ariza
Worriers = H. Barnes and Iggy

there just is no way a poor defender who's only defensive strength is his size and length against smaller 2 guards can play a lick of defense against that list of bigger, longer, and stronger small forwards. Jamal was also a former "worst" rebounding guard in the league, and going against those guys defensively, will be a offensive rebound giveaway firesale.

[mattd13]

have to agree totally neddy. hope doc reads your comments!!!!

[Ranma]

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[tweet]https://twitter.com/stevekylerNBA/status/590186893985370112[/tweet]

[mattd13]

Jamal's play helped us get one. hope he can help win the series and doc makes the right choices with him.

[kylem4711]

I actually don't know if it helped. it just didn't hurt too bad since he was scoring.

[mttwlsn16]

I would sign up for 7/10 and 17 points from him every night. He's never been known as a good defender, so idk why people complain about that. He absolutely helped last night. He's not a superstar, his job is to come in and provide offense, and he did that last night and was very efficient which was nice to see.

[og15]

Jamal did his job last night and did it very well. Can't expect 7/10 FG every night, but it's just about Doc getting a feel for how he's doing that night and determining how long he's going to keep him on the court based on that.

[nickhx2]

While in a vacuum i agree that's how to handle him, i don't think that's something we can practically fall back on.

For one thing, doc has show a repeated insistence on playing crawford simply because it's crunch time. That doesn't really have anything to do with whether jamal's hot or not. He just believes (like that other poster in general forums mentioned) that it changes how teams defends us. Unfortunately, it's not for the better.

Doc also has shown he'll stick with crawford's bad streaks. Anyone remember that game earlier this season where jamal's AWFUL, AWFUL play was getting us blown out? He made something like 3 terrible plays in a row compounding error after error. He started making shots in the fourth to "win" the game but he was the reason we were getting blown out in the first place! And it was only cause doc, for god knows what reason, opted to keep him in the game.

And the fact of the matter is there simply aren't any bench options besides putting starters back in if crawford is being bad. Rivers is already going to be playing and doc isn't gonna put hudson in unless someone's injured or we're getting blown out. And since cp3/jj can't play 45 minutes a night, all doc has left is to play crawford even if he's being bad.

I'd love to be able to shelve crawford on his bad nights. But I just don't see how that is going to happen in these particular playoffs. We're gonna get some good crawford and some bad crawford. I just hope we get a lot more good than bad.

[mattd13]

the key to jamal is doc however the ones that worry me the most are hawes, and Austin. they bring very little to the table and like you said we will not win if the starters have to play 40 plus mjns. every game.