Season Goals: New Orleans Pelicans Role Players

Jordan Crawford: Shot Selection and Defense

In Jordan Crawford’s 19 game return to the NBA, he showed to be a Jamal Crawford-type sixth man with similar problems.

First, there is his shooting, which is not bad but is instead inconsistent and uncalculated. Crawford shot a good 38.9% from three, but this number was comprised of two very different phases. In his first eight games, Crawford shot an incredible 50% from three on 2.6 makes per game.

However, in his last eleven games, Crawford’s three-point percentage lowered to just 30.2% on 1.5 makes per game. His true shooting percentage took a major hit as well, due to his reliance on threes, going from 64.6% in his first eight games to 54.4% in his final eleven.

A major part of this three-point hit was his selection, as he rose his frequency of contested threes by 7.4%, and lowered his frequency of wide open threes by 8.9%. 

And of course, Crawford suffered severely on the defensive end. Last year his DRPM was just -2.48, and offenders shot 50.8% from the field against him. His only positive defensive attribute was his pick and roll defense, which produced just .7 points per possession, putting him in the 84th percentile, but could very well be due to small sample size.

But nevertheless, the former two statistics indicate some terrible defense, and being that in 2013-2014, his last full season NBA stint, his DRPM was -2.49, I’d assume that his horrendous 2016-2017 numbers are accurate. A large part of Crawford’s defensive problems might just be a lack of effort, as he was one of the league’s worst contesters last season.

Crawford does not even need to play league average defense, but if his DRPM is above -1, it would be a good defensive season for him and would make him more playable in end of game scenarios.

And with capable shooting guards Tony Allen, Ian Clark and E’Twaun Moore on the team, if Crawford does not improve in these two facets, the Pels can afford to stop playing him entirely.