Celtics Make Low-Risk Move For Jordan Crawford
BOSTON (CBS) – The Boston Celtics potentially added some scoring off their bench and more depth at the guard position at Thursday's NBA Trade Deadline, reportedly acquiring Jordan Crawford from the Washington Wizards.
Crawford is no slam dunk, but all the Celtics had to send to Washington was injured guard Leandro Barbosa's expiring contract and 34-year-old center Jason Collins. Any time you can acquire a player that can score for a player that can't play, along with a center that barely played, you can usually chalk that up as a win.
Crawford, in his third NBA season, averaged 13.2 points on 43-percent shooting for the Wizards in 43 games in 2012-13. For his career, he's averaged 13.4 points per game, shooting 40-percent from the floor and 30-percent from three-point range.
He may be best known for something he did before he entered the NBA though. In 2009, while still at Xavier, Crawford threw down a monster two-hand dunk on LeBron James at James' Skills Academy, a play Nike didn't want anyone to see. They confiscated the tape to try to keep it from the public's eyes, but even back in 2009 that proved to be difficult.
The 24-year-old Crawford gives Boston another scorer off the bench and more depth at the guard position. But there's always a reason a player with his ability comes so cheap, and you don't have to look hard to see it. Crawford had fallen out of favor in Washington, playing just 50 minutes in February after averaging over 22 minutes in January, and was benched for his final five games in Washington. It doesn't bode well that the Wizards actually started to play better with Crawford out of the rotation.
So it will be interesting to see if he can pick things back up with the Celtics. His scoring will be welcomed, but he'll also have to play defense to earn minutes from Doc Rivers.
It's a low-risk move, but one that could pay off for the Celtics.
