the thing with craw now is he is streaky...I was at a couple of games at the garden when he just caught fire...hoisting, crowd gasps, hits, crowd erupts. I think it looks like he doesn't know what he's doing when he shoots, but in all actuality he does.

I think what we want most from craw is better clock management...you can hoist with 3 seconds on the shot clock, but not with 15 - 24 seconds on the clock.

Also, great posts.

no doubt

When I watch Rip play I see his movements designed to getting him within his range - and he's very disciplined about shooting within that area.

great point about Rip's discipline. Leads me into the problem in a nutshell. Crawford and Marbury was a terrible backcourt design in the first place - 2 undiscpilined playmakers who also play NO defense required to be the brains and inspiration for a team was a HUGE NO NO. Especially one with play-off aspirations.

When I look at the backcourt now, IMO its a lesser of two evils. Neither Steph or Craw are optimal choices to run a team but Craw has better instincts about spatial relations involving the passing game than Steph does.

[Edited by - McK1 on 10-20-2005 10:50 AM]

Crawford needs to learn what a good shot is and how to play defense or else his future with Brown will be short.

The thing that bothers me about Crawford is going through last season he talked about how he understood that he needed to get stronger, bulk up to be able to defend better and take it to the hoop more. He said he was going to make it a priority in the offseason. I don't see any change in the way he looks or plays.

crawford needs to drive the ball

I'm not a Crawford fan. He's just another one of those "Talented-Atheltic" guys without a true position that thinks they can be iverson. So they get years and years to develop and never reach there full "potential" or whatever people thought it would be.

What I don't like about Crawford is no defense. Bad judgement on offense. Can he correct those problems - we'll see. If it doesn't happen under LB it won't happen.

As far as outside shooting this team is deficient and a shooter would be nice. Q is not that good of a shooter. He was 51st in 3 percentage. He just shot a lot of em.

Maybe the best way to bring the best out of Crawford is Brown being extremely tough on him, both teaching him and not playing him until he does so with control. Its no secret he has lots of talent and could be a star in this league. He may not be the purest jumpshooter in the league but he does know how to shoot, you couldn't get 40 or 50 pts. if you didn't. The problem seems to be that out there he is playing survivor, thinking just about getting it done on that night and not which is the right way to get it done consistently. Brown has to focus on teaching him a lot because even though he is an experienced NBA player, he lacks many fundamentals that he could easily have. If he is a good player, and he is, its only because he has talent. But if a great teacher like Brown can make him recognize a bad shot from a good one, use his speed and athletism to get him easy shots, and focus on playing basketball the right controled way, he could be great.

And one thing in Crawford's favor is that he seems to be committed to really get better. You can see how he feels the pressure of Brown and wants to do the things he has started to teach him. I do believe he wants to get better, but he need a coach to be all the time pushing him to be more than he is now. A kick in the *ss coach like the one we just got.

On defense, again he has all the tools, its just a matter of Brown teaching him it and pushing him to play it. He is still just a kid, and one that seems to cry out for a teacher before his talents go to waste. I really don't expect a lot of great things from Crawford this year. He may even see his minutes reduced a lot. But I think that if Brown is up to the challenge and Crawford concentrates on becoming a complete player instead of just a survivor, Craw would finally become the star some still believe he can be...