Beyond Blazers Podcast- w/620 AM's Bunker & Danforth

That is crazy! I woulda thought he had at least a handful of double-digit games. Huh!

Crabbe has certainly been the biggest surprise this season. Watching him last night I too was getting some Wes-vibes from his defense. And his offense has really progressed nicely - good first step, nice pull-up J. Much like how Aminu reminds me of Outlaw's lack of intelligence, Crabbe's game looks like what Outlaw's game would have looked like if he had a brain in his noggin.

 

Crabbe is def a keeper. hes hella nice

 

My only issue with Crabbe is that sometimes his defense is offset by the number of bad fouls he makes. He loves reaching in for steals an hacks a lot on drives. If he could just play solid on-ball defense without fouling he'd be so much better.

 

He only played in 51 games last year, and his career high was 11 pts,

It's funny. In two seasons prior, he played in 66 games and 783 minutes total. This season, he has played in all 41 and totaling 1064 minutes.

All about that opportunity-- he certainly has earned it.

 

What's really strange about the NBA is that unlike soccer/baseball - that management of lineups doesn't really factor in (by coaches) typically until late game situations. With all the advancements in coaching, analytics, video editing, etc it's really interesting that that dynamic really hasn't changed. That's one paradigm that seems to be taboo- and no one at the professional level seems willing to mess with that too much because the risk outweighs the reward at this point. It would be really interesting if a Billy Beane type came through the NBA in the coaching ranks and shook things up a little bit.

 

I'm not gonna hold it against him (yet). He's halfway through his first season as a REGULAR member of the rotation. He appears to be a smart player, and I expect him to clean up his mistakes by the time it really matters.

 

I must have mis-read what was initially posted, because I thought whoever wrote it said that Crabbe had NEVER scored double digits, and is now averaging double digits. Still, I would have expected a higher career high, and more double digit scoring nights.

 

Another comparison is Demarre Carroll in his 5th season (age 27), his first with ATL. Came out of nowhere and put up essentially the stats AC is putting up now. He got his HUGE payday last summer.

http://bkref.com/tiny/m3qMz

 

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/crabbal01/gamelog/2015/

You're right, he scored 11 in April of last year. So one game over double digits.

Still crazy, but I think everyone saw marked improvement during summer league this past year. Whereas I think CJ was just someone who was held back by not playing enough minutes, I think Crabbe really improved as a player.

 

It was close. He had 1 double digit scoring game his first two seasons.