By Daniel Carney
Third-year shooting guard Jordan Crawford is one of many players on the Celtics looking to break out this season. However, before we preview Crawford and expectations for him this season in, let’s take a quick look back at his basketball career so far from college to the NBA. Don’t know Jordan Crawford? This article will help you get to know the 2nd year Celtics’ player.
Crawford played his freshman season at the University of Indiana. His first season was pretty decent for a freshman, as he played 30 total games and started a total of eight. He averaged 9.7 points (7th among Big-Ten freshman), 3.4 rebounds, and 2.3 assists a game. After only one season with Indiana, Crawford decided to transfer to Xavier University for his sophomore season, a move which resulted in a huge let down and heart breaker.
Having been denied immediate eligibility by the NCAA, Crawford was redshirted the entire 2008-2009 season, but he was still allowed to practice with the team throughout the season. In the summer of 2009, Crawford gained some media attention after dunking on some basketball player named Lebron James.
During the summer, rumors ran rampant that a college player had dunked on NBA All-Star Lebron James in a mini-camp pickup game ran by James and Nike. It is believed that an amateur video and photos of the poster dunk were confiscated by Nike; they claimed there was a no photography/video rule enforced at the camp. But that didn’t stop the video of the dunk being leaked onto YouTube, and soon the media took over the video, and for a period of time it went viral. It was later revealed that the player who had dunked James was indeed Xavier guard Jordan Crawford.
He finally returned to the basketball court for the beginning of the 2009-2010 season after a year of inactivity, and man did he return strong! In his first real season with Xavier, Crawford averaged averaged 20.5 points (leading the Atlantic 10 conference in scoring), 4.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists a game, and a solid .463 shooting from the field. Crawford scored more points (718) as a sophomore than any other sophomore in Xavier basketball history. Crawford would skip his junior and senior years at Xavier to enter the NBA draft.
Crawford was selected by the New Jersey Nets (now Brooklyn Nets) with the 27th pick in the 2010 NBA Draft. His NBA rights were later traded to the Atlanta Hawks where he played 16 total games, averaging 4.2 points a game in just 10 minutes of play (yes he is known for his scoring). After those 16 games Crawford was already traded. On Feb. 23, 2011, Crawford was traded to the Washington Wizards along with Maurice Evans and Mike Bibby in exchange for Hilton Armstrong and Kirk Hinrich. For the remainder of the 2010-2011 season, Crawford did nothing less than wow fans around the NBA.
Starting off as someone no one knew about, Crawford averaged 16.3 points, 3 rebounds, and 3.9 assists a game for the Wizards. He played a total of 28 games in the 2010-2011 season in Washington, starting 18 total games and averaging 33.3 minutes a game.
In 64 total games (32 starts), during the 2011-2012 season, Crawford averaged 14.7 points a game, 2.6 rebounds, and 3 assists, and shot 40% from the field. Crawford is known to be a very streaky shooter.
Crawford started the 2012-2013 season with the Wizards and played a total of 43 games before being traded on Feb. 21, 2013, to the Boston Celtics. The Celtics got Crawford for cheap in many people’s minds, trading two veterans (Leandro Barbosa (out for season with torn ACL during trade) and Jason Collins) for a still young and promising guard (Crawford will be 24 years old going into the 2013-2014 season).
Crawford played a total of 27 games for Boston last season, averaging 21.6 minutes. He put up some decent numbers in his short time in Boston, averaging 9.1 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 2.5 assists a game. Crawford played a total of 5 games for the Celtics in the 2013 playoffs, averaging 11.7 minutes a game and putting up 3.6 points a game in the first round of the 5 game span vs. the Knicks (eliminating the celtics).
Now Crawford has the chance to do something big this season, a fresh season with a clean slate. He will be more developed in the Celtics offense, considering he will be here with us from game one and won’t be arriving in Boston mid-season like last year. Though Crawford might settle into the back-up shooting guard position, don’t think that means this guy won’t get his time to shine on the court. Even in the role he is playing this season for Boston, he could still be a guy they use 20+ minutes a game.
How does Crawford stay consistent and be an impact player for this Celtics team in the upcoming 2013-2014 season? Crawford must be more consistent with his shot and only taking threes when he is either wide open or a defender is slacking off. Crawford is known to be a quick shooter, while not always making the best shot choices that he can get. That is one reason that his field goal percentage has been so low in his career. He is not a guy you will see getting 5+ rebounds a game or 5+ assists per game, but he is the guy that can be a key scorer off the bench for this team. If Crawford learns to shoot more consistently and make better shot choices, then look out for him to be lethal for Boston.
