Jae Crowder Needs to be More Patient on Offense
There is no doubting that Jae Crowder has emerged as one of the break out players for the Boston Celtics this season. The most revealing stat for Crowder is his minutes per game. Crowder has played more than 22 minutes in all but one out of his last 10 games and perhaps even more importantly, he has played over 30 minutes in his last three games. In Brad Stevens’ offensive system the minutes are spread out and players coming off the bench often play more than starters. Crowder’s minutes are certainly inflated with injuries to Jared Sullinger and Avery Bradley. However, seeing the minutes increase shows that Stevens has a great level of trust in Crowder. The only problem is that trust may run out of Crowder does not adapt his game.
Crowder has been a solid contributor with double digit points in 10 of his last 15 games. Crowder season high is a somewhat unimpressive 22 points during that stretch, but given how the Celtics share the ball on offense he has certainly been impressive. Unfortunately, a disagreeable trend has emerged from Crowder’s game as he continues to take ill timed and ill advised shots. On a team that will pride themselves on ball movement and distribution, it is helping nobody when Crowder starts jacking up contested three pointers with time on the shot clock.
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Crowder has been particularly inefficient over the last five games as his shooting percentage has been under 25% in three of those games and is over 50% just once. Fortunately, Crowder has had two games above 47% shooting in his last five and that, if nothing else, emphasizes how bad he has been from beyond the arc. In his last five games Crowder is yet to shoot better than 33% from three, and four of those games are under 20% shooting. These numbers only become more glaring given that in three of those games Crowder took more than 5 three pointers.
The way the Celtics are playing right now if anyone is going to be jacking up three pointers, it is going to be Isaiah Thomas and there is a reason for that. During the same five game stretch when Crowder has struggled, Thomas has shot better than 25% in four out of five games and was over 40% in two of them.
This is a very small sample size, but with the increase in minutes due to the injury of Avery Bradley this has been the time for Crowder to prove his role on the team. If Brad Stevens is going to continue to trust Crowder with a lot of minutes he needs to realize that on a team that has started a trend of blowing big leads, the young core needs to value each and every possession.
Crowder has proven that he can be a reliable scorer, even from beyond the arc. The biggest difference has been the timing and situation of a lot of the shots. Crowder is always surrounded by multiple players that can shoot the three pointer and if he starts showing more patience he will make the extra passes that lead to better shots.
Crowder is running the risk of falling below 30% shooting from beyond the arc on the season and with Jerebko, Datome, Bradley, Thomas, Olynyk and Smart all shooting better from three than Crowder, he needs to adapt more of a pass first mentality and not rush shots, especially from three point range.
Despite all the poor percentages, Crowder seems to be part of the Celtics’ plans and he has earned his increased role on the team. Fortunately, being on a rebuilding team, Crowder will have all the time he needs to grow and build chemistry with other recent additions. The Celtics are still figuring out how their offense is going function and they look their best when they are patient and look to make the extra pass, leading to a higher percentage shot.
Crowder’s aggressiveness has been one of the reasons he has earned such a significant role on the team. If he can manage to harness that aggressiveness into better timed opportunities he will be a fixture on the Celtics for years to come. He also is a great interview –