Gordon Hayward and Jae Crowder Could Make For Dynamic Pairing

Celtics small forward Jae Crowder made his feelings clear when he criticized Boston fans for cheering Utah Jazz small forward Gordon Hayward prior to Tuesday’s game. However, Hayward could add a considerable amount to the team.

Boston Celtics small forward Jae Crowder has never been one to mince words.

The Marquette product took to Twitter following his team’s 115-104 defeat of the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night, displaying his displeasure with the fans for cheering small forward Gordon Hayward during pre-game introductions. Crowder attacked the TD Garden crowd for supporting players on the opposing team before retweeting a statement from a Mavericks fan clamoring for him to return to Dallas and responding to a follower’s tweet about the Boston fan base by stating, “I HAVE NO PROBLEM LEAVING IT!”

HOME TEAM FANS CHEERING FOR THE OPPOSING PLAYERS NOW.. AW MAN OK... SMH BUT GOOD WIN FELLAS ONTO THE NEXT ONE.!!
— JAE CROWDER (@CJC9BOSS) January 4, 2017

Crowder also voiced his discontent to the media following the game. “I heard the cheering before the game. I didn’t like that at all,” he told ESPN.com. “I think that was a sign of disrespect to me from the fans. That sparked a little fire in me.”

Always a character known for sporting his emotions on his sleeve, Crowder used this perceived slight as motivation to fuel his fire heading into the contest. He shot tremendously from three-point range, hitting five of his six treys en route to a 6-8 shooting performance for 21 points and three rebounds. In comparison, it required 14 shot attempts for Hayward to muster 23 points, as he shot 3-7 from deep and 7-14 overall while turning the ball over on three occasions. Crowder also bettered Hayward significantly in the plus-minus department. His +21 rating was the best on either side, while Hayward’s eye-popping -20 plus-minus was the worst rating on either team.

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Despite the lopsided result on Tuesday night, the fact of the matter is that Hayward is certainly a candidate that the Celtics should target in free agency to pair alongside Crowder at the small forward position. Hayward has blossomed as a scorer in 2016-17, and with his past history with Boston head coach Brad Stevens during his collegiate days with the Butler Bulldogs, all signs point to the Celtics to be a front-runner to land Hayward on a maximum contract.

Per 36 minutes, Hayward trumps Crowder in points (22.9-15.1), rebounds (6.2-5.7), assists (3.7-2.6), and blocks (0.4-0.3). His estimated 4.5 win shares towers over Crowder’s 2.5 while his box plus/minus of 4.5 more than doubles Crowder’s box plus/minus of 2.0. In terms of value over replacement player, Hayward is worth 1.7 compared with Crowder’s 0.9. Additionally, despite witnessing his usage rate balloon to a career-high 28.4 percent, Hayward’s turnover rate has plummeted to a career-low 9.7 percent. For Crowder, the trend has gone in the opposite direction. His usage rate has dropped from 18.5 percent in 2015-16 to 16.3 percent this season while his turnover percentage has increased from 8.3 percent to 10 percent.

However, Crowder has taken significant leaps as a shooting threat this season. His true shooting percentage has risen from 56.5 percent to a substantial 64.4 percent despite 55.9 percent of his shots coming from long range. Speaking of beyond the arc, Crowder has improved his three-point accuracy in astounding fashion, bumping his three-point shooting percentage by nearly ten percent since last season (33.6 percent vs. 43 percent).

With Crowder and Hayward both sporting defensive rebounding percentages higher than 15 percent, the Celtics would be intrigued to play the two alongside each other late in games and perhaps in the starting lineup. Considering that Boston’s current power forward, Amir Johnson, owns a defensive rebounding percentage worse than both Crowder and Hayward proves that the Celtics could get away with starting the two next to each other. Crowder has proven his ability to guard power forwards, and Boston has flourished on the defensive end when Stevens decides to run a small-ball lineup with Crowder featured at the 4-spot. Hayward’s is coming off of a 2015-16 campaign in which he garnered a career-high 3.4 defensive win shares and defensive box plus/minus has risen to 0.4 this season, displaying his capacity for guarding small forwards in an effective manner.

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Crowder should not be angered with the Boston faithful for attempting to persuade Hayward to join the Celtics in free agency. Rather, he should be at the forefront of the recruiting pitch to land the potential Western Conference All-Star, the tandem could be uncontainable together in green.