[HaleParticipant]

 Over the course of his long NBA career, journeyman combo guard Jamal Crawford has become known as a dependable veteran scorer. In truth, there’s little else he does particularly well. And while Crawford’s career shooting percentages — 40.8 percent from the field and 34.8 percent from beyond the arc — leave much to be desired, it’s also clear that a team should only pick him up if it wants him to shoot. That’s what Crawford does, and he’s managed to make a pretty good living out of it.

It is easy to assume that, because of the progression of his career, Crawford would have identified that and done everything possible to make sure he improved and continued his skills as a shooter. However, that appears to have not been the case at all. In fact, Crawford says he never practiced his shooting before this year.From Helene Elliott for the Los Angeles Times(via TBJ and TrueHoop):

After 12 NBA seasons and with a firm reputation as a pure shooter, Clippers guard Jamal Crawford tried something during the off-season he had never done before. He practiced shooting.

It’s astonishing to think that Crawford, who is the NBA’s career leader with 34 four-point plays and ranks 21st all-time with 1,387 three-pointers, didn’t routinely spend his summers in stuffy gyms trying to perfect his shot. […]

"This summer was actually the first summer I worked on my game. I usually just play off of raw talent," he said Thursday after the Clippers’ practice. "But I just wanted to work on something and be in great shape coming into camp. I came here right after Labor Day, which is the earliest I’ve ever gone to any team in the summer, and all the guys were here, committed to getting better.

"Now it’s part of my lifestyle, working out and being here, shooting and getting shots up. It gives you more confidence that if you miss one or two, you know you’ve been working on it every single day and your teammates have confidence because they see it as well."

This news is mind-boggling for many reasons, but the first is pretty obvious: how can a player go through so many seasons of organized basketball without being drilled on shooting at all? That Crawford makes his living by putting the ball in the basket only raises the level of confusion. Frankly, it’s a little difficult to believe him.

The other bit of intrigue — and the one that’s much easier to analyze — is that Crawford, a veteran, has never taken part in the near-obsessive offseason workouts that we typically associate with sustained NBA success. If this is true, then he really did get by on little more than his talent. That’s impressive, in its way — winning a Sixth Man of the Year trophy is difficult — but it also conjures questions of "what might have been?" if Crawford had put forth that extra effort.

For the record, Crawford has spent most of his career in a middle ground between looking like a star-quality scorer and being inefficient enough to submarine a team’s hopes of greater relevance. With this news, that doesn’t come as such a surprise.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/jamal-crawford-only-started-practicing-shooting-232948543–nba.html

 

[aamir543Participant]

That’s absolutly absurd, I’m sure this story is a bit exagerated, but if this really is true than, I am led to believe that had Jamal Crawford even put in the work an average NBA player did, we could be looking at a perenial All-Star. This’ unbelievable, If I don’t shoot for a week or two it takes another week to get my shot back, but for a guy at the highest level to go 5 months(he’s only made the playoffs twice in his career) without going through intence workouts to work on his game, that means his talent must be immense.

[LipstickParticipant]

If it’s true, then I see it as more like "I got millions of dollars, now I don’t have to work hard". Must be nice to be paid to be a professional yet be totally unprofessional and do next to nothing regarding working on his craft.

Yeah, it sounds like I’m hating, but what a waste of talent and lack of worth ethic by him IF it is true, which I find hard to believe. It seems impossible for someone to shoot over 80% from the free throw line and not work just a little bit on that skill in the offseason.

[frogmanParticipant]

Yeh I think it is a bit exagerrated saying he does nothing but to be honest if I had to guess one player in the league where this is the case it would be Jamal Crawford.  He has always had an insane mix of athleticism, handles and scoring ability.  How he has never made an all-star team is crazy to me when you watch some of his games.  So he might actually be telling the truth!

[cabbycabParticipant]

 Shooting the ball was never his problem ( hence the good FT % ).  His shot selection is a whole different story.

 

[TRC1991Participant]

His shot selection and inability to play defense are what holds him back

[larryfiskenParticipant]

 But his shoot selection is also a result of him getting the ball with 4 seconds on the clock to make something and actually i think he is one of the best players in the NBA to drill those low % shoots when the offence has used up the shoot clock he just gets the ball and has to shoot a difficult shoot cause he is good at making em, so i dont think we should judge him just on the fg% he shoots.  

[druneave3Participant]

Jamal Crawford, Eddy Curry, and Tyson Chandler could have been really nice together. 

[Tongue-Out-Like-23Participant]

Now imagine if Jamal Crawford actually worked on his game, this guy would be a legit star by now.  

Add 5-8% to his shooting percentage and 3 more FGs made, he would easily average 6-8 more points a game.

[SiggyParticipant]

 

 There are some guys who don’t even pick up a basketball at all in the off-season, Stephen Jackson and Andre Miller to name a couple.  Jamal plays plenty of ball in the summer, he just doesn’t work on individual skills in the offseason.

From a technical standpoint he was never a bad shooter.  I mean, this guy is a career 85% shooter.  He doesn’t need to fix his stroke.  His problem when it came to shooting % was shot selection and not being strong enough to play through contact.  His entire offensive game, outside of transition points, is based on taking and making difficult shots.  Maybe he could incrementally increase his shooting percentage a tiny bit, but he’d always have the same mentality, which is of someone who can’t differentiate between a good shot and a bad one. His skill is fine.  His bball IQ is not.  Bball IQ is improved with experience, game action and film study. Jamal is exposed to plenty of that during the season, yet it still hasn’t sunken in.  No amount of individual skill building in the off-season can improve the IQ of players who just don’t get it.

 

[LerinErinParticipant]

 I am sure you made a huge typo

[SiggyParticipant]

 Yeah, forgot the FT part. He’s a career 85% from the line. 

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

I’m sure the guy plays pick up and exhibition games all summer, but not that shocking that he doesn’t really practice. What is shocking is that teams and contending teams at that, still offer him big money to come play. I can’t believe the Clippers signed him up and actually think he is going to help them at this stage of his career. There is basically no scenario that I can think of where the Clippers are better off having Crawford do his one on one moves instead of having CP3. And yes I know CP3 couldn’t just run isos all day and still be effective, but Crawford was terrible shooting last year and he hasn’t really been good ever. So I’d rather go with CP3. 

The FT% shouldn’t really impress you that much. I know a good number of guys who also haven’t practiced FTs since they were on their highschool team many many years ago. They are fine FT shooters. It is just a very easy shot for good shooters and Crawford gets plenty of FT practice during the regular season and during shoot arounds before games. It does show that Crawford has a nice stroke, but there are lots of folks in the world who can shoot a basketball against no defense. Crawfords skill was getting the shot up agaisnt defense, but he uses that skill too often to create bad shots. And then he has coaches who let him get away with it. 

[slash787Participant]

This guy will be on ESPN 30 for 30 in 10 years telling his story on why he is bankrupt.  If you can’t put work into your profession just imagine what your finances look like.  I will call it now.  Bankrupt within 5 years of reitrement.  

[SiggyParticipant]

 I don’t see the correlation.

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