I FUCKING HATE JAMAL CRAWFORD. I HATE HIM. I FUCKING HATE HIM. You know how much mediocre man doesn't like Crawford? I hate him more. Fuck him. I fucking want him off my team. Right now. I'll buy him a one-way bus ticket to anywhere but here. Just cut his ass. And pack Nate in his suitcase. Every shot Crawford makes is spectacular. Problem is, for every good play he makes, he fucks up 3 or 4 times, at least. In the first half, he made two spectacular looking threes. Problem is, he proceeded to fuck up the next 6 times in a row. But all the announcers, including Dumb-Shaq, saw was that he made two threes. And the blindness continued in the second half. In the fourth quarter the fucker single-handedly lost our huge lead. All the dumb-fuck announcers could say was, boy, Crawford is the only one scoring so boy, he was really carrying us. Good thing Crawford was bringing it. Fuck those morons. When Crawford is in the game, Batum may as well just go down the tunnel and take a fucking shower. Fuck. Our best player on the floor, lighting it up when Crawford isn't around, can't sniff the ball in position to make a play when that fucker Crawford is in the game. I'm pissed. I want that fucker off my team. If Crawford plays another minute ahead of Babbitt, Nate should be fired on the spot. And no, I haven't been drinking. Fuck. And good night.
I hate his game too. But I really need to question why I hate him, and realize it's because he's playing at PG so much. Why is he playing at PG so much? Because Felton looks like a d-leaguer. I would redirect the hate at Felton.
Jamal shouldn't be running the point. But is forced to because of how bad Raymond sucks. The Blazers, at the end of games, seem to only be able to do Jamal Crawford ISOs.....and obviously, that doesn't work very well. They started off the game passing the ball around, with nice movement, then got into the stagnent crap.
Lots of hate for the only guy on the team who can create his own offense. If this thread was about Felton, I'd understand.
If he was in a role like he was with the Hawks, where he could come in and maybe give the offense a little bit of lift, without completely dominating the ball (to the tune of a 28% usage rate) I wouldn't mind it so much. It's just a guess, but I think Nate maybe has some blinders on when it comes to this guy because of their long running relationship back to Jamal's high-school days.
Are you serious? Look down the Blazers' bench and tell me who else Nate is supposed to play in the backcourt at the end of games? I'm pretty sure that Nate is fully aware of Crawford's deficiencies, but he can't invent a competent guard out of thin air.
Because there are so many other options on this team. When Crawford is your best ball handler something has gone terribly wrong
Really though, who else on the floor was supposed to create offense? Nate ran a play for Nic with 3:00 left, and Nic flat-footed a wide-open three from the corner that bounced back to him off of the front rim. He got the rebound, but was so exhausted that he passed up a shot and threw it to Crawford, who then scored. The team was gassed, and Matthews missing a FT with 8.7 left, and then throwing up a panic shot, pretty much typifies this team without LMA or Roy.
Frankly, tonight Batum could have made his mark as an impact player, but he drifted to the perimeter in the second half after a solid first half.
About this line: "It's just a guess, but I think Nate maybe has some blinders on when it comes to this guy because of their long running relationship back to Jamal's high-school days." I mean, if you can find me another option to Crawford that Nate has available to him at the end of games that might actually work, I guess you could try that line.
I think Nate gives Crawford waaaaay more latitude then he deserves as a sub 40% shooter. There are times when he's looking to involve teammates and swings the ball (like the first half of tonight's game) and then at some point he becomes a total ball-stopper ... either Nate wants him running these isolation sets into the ground because he thinks he's got the talent to make it a high percentage play or Crawford is going off the reservation and free-lancing without Nate reigning him in. So for me that's on Nate. he doesn't need to neuter him or punish him, but he does need to curb him just a little bit. There are ways to generate high percentage shots that don't involve just one player dribbling the air out of the ball for fifteen seconds and pulling up for a contested mid-range jumpshot.
You think I'm talking about just this game? And for the record, I don't "hate" Crawford, I just think he's using way too many possessions going one-on-one.
Eh, wasn't your thread. Probably could find a more rational thread to have this discussion, because you do bring up valid concerns, IMO. I'm just not sure what the alternative is. LAC ran ISO with either Paul or Mo Williams for the last 5 minutes of the game. Unfortunately for PDX, Felton was pissing his pants, and Matthews was fumbling the ball to the other team when Crawford tried initiate an offense. Batum was floating around the perimeter, I'm not sure what Wallace was doing, and Camby was doing what he does. The only option was Crawford. LAC have better guards. It's as simple as that.
he's great against us, shitty for us. so would have rather had nate robinson , least dude goes off a bunch of times - crawford not so much
And yet they run a 4th quarter offense that depends on one of those awful guards dominating the ball and playing 1-on-5. Gee, I wonder why that doesn't work. BNM
