Talking About Jae Crowder

More than a month after he first requested a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving has finally officially been traded to the Boston Celtics. While much has been made of the asset the Cavaliers acquired in the Brooklyn Nets’ unprotected first-round pick, and speculation on the extent of Isaiah Thomas‘s hip injury has run rampant, there has been little talk comparatively about the newest Cavalier who will likely have the greatest impact on the team’s fortunes this season, forward Jae Crowder. Who is Jae Crowder, and what is it that makes him so special? Let’s take a look.

For a player who is seen by many as a key part of the Cavaliers’ championship aspirations this season, Crowder hasn’t taken the most traditional road to the top. Lightly recruited out of high school, Crowder played two years of  junior college basketball before transferring to Marquette University, where he spent two seasons, playing alongside Jimmy Butler during his first year with the Golden Eagles. Despite his perseverance in making it to a Division I school, Crowder had some pretty severe limitations. He was a mediocre shooter, connecting on 35% of his threes, and shooting just 68% from the line during his time at Marquette (although he did shoot 73% from the line during his second year with the team). He didn’t have much ability to create his own shot, and there were worries that his abilities on the boards wouldn’t translate to the NBA level due to his limited size.  After measuring just 6’6″ with a 6’9″ wingspan and 34 inch max vertical at the NBA Combine (with worse measurements during a workout with the Brooklyn Nets), Crowder fell to the second round of the 2012 NBA Draft, where he was selected 34th overall by, ironically, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Alas, Crowder’s time with the Cavs was not yet meant to be. He was traded along with fellow draft picks Jared Cunningham and Bernard James to the Dallas Mavericks for Tyler Zeller, who was selected 17th overall earlier that night. Luckily for Crowder, he got a chance to play for a great organization in the Mavericks, and one of the best coaches in the league in Rick Carlisle. Crowder shot just 38% from the field his rookie year, but earned valuable playing time, averaging 17.3 minutes in 78 games while serving as the primary backup to then-future Cavalier Shawn Marion.

While Crowder was able to develop into a solid backup during his time with the Mavericks—a nice accomplishment for a second round pick—he was never able to crack the Mavs’ starting lineup on a consistent. basis. That’s why it wasn’t a huge surprise when he was traded alongside Jameer Nelson, Brandan Wright, and multiple draft picks to the Boston Celtics for Rajon Rondo and Dwight Powell on December 18, 2014. Sure, Crowder was a nice young player, but the Mavericks already had Chandler Parsons as their starting small forward, and both Richard Jefferson and Al-Farouq Aminu were more than capable backups. Despite the skepticism of many basketball experts, the Mavs thought that this move would make them more of a force in the playoffs.

Then a funny thing happened. As the Mavericks struggled to incorporate Rondo alongside fellow ball-dominant guard Monta Ellis, the Celtics—fueled by the acquisitions of Crowder and Isaiah Thomas—took off in the second half of the season. Despite finishing as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference with a 40-42 record, Boston actually had the second-best record in the East after the All-Star break, behind only the Cavaliers. While it was surprising at the time, Crowder and Thomas turned out to be far more impactful players than the men they replaced, Rondo and Jeff Green (who joins Crowder and Thomas on the Cavaliers). In fact, during Crowder’s time on the floor, this Celtics team with a losing record outscored opponents by four points per 100 possessions. While Crowder started just one game during the Celtics’ four-game sweep by the Cavaliers, he finished fourth on the teams in minutes per game during the playoffs (Thomas came off the bench in all four games, but finished second on the team in minutes per game). This was also the first time he was noticed by many Cavalier fans, although not for his actual play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vYKhll04cQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL7HZUJWGoc

Beginning with the 2015-2016 season, Crowder took over as the starting small forward for the Celtics, averaging new career highs in points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, and minutes per game. The funny thing was, the increase in minutes and shot attempts didn’t hurt Crowder’s efficiency. In fact, the opposite occured on both ends of the floor, as Crowder posted what was then a career-best true shooting percentage of 56.5%, and missed out on a spot on the NBA’s All-Defense team by a single vote. Analytics looked at Crowder just as favorably, as he also set career-highs in PER, Win Shares, Box Plus-Minus, Real Plus-Minus, single-season VORP. In short, Crowder went from solid rotation player to one of the best 3-and-D players in the entire NBA.

Last season was even better for Crowder in several aspects. His three-point shooting moved from good to great as he shot 39.8% from deep on over five attempts per game. His ability to shoot from both the corners and the top of the arc provided key spacing for the Celtics’ offense.

Crowder’s offensive game also became more well-rounded as he averaged a career-high 2.2 assists per game on an impressive (for a wing) two-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio. The free throw issues from college have disappeared as well, as Crowder has shot over 80% from the charity stripe in each of the last two seasons. He became more proficient in attacking the basket after closeouts, another sign of his growing offensive versatility. Crowder is also a solid cutter, and finished 11th in field goal percentage within three feet of the basket among players with at least 100 such attempts. Combined with his outside shooting, that ability to finish at the basket gave Crowder a True Shooting Percentage of 61.3% last season, a terrific number. He continued to be a force on the glass, establishing a career-best in rebounding by averaging 5.8 boards per game. Crowder’s solid two-way play is highly rated by ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus statistic, which has ranked him as a top five small forward in each of the last two seasons, and the 20th best player in the entire NBA last season. By this measure (which obviously isn’t perfect, but no statistic is), Crowder was the best player moved on either side of the Cleveland-Boston trade. While he isn’t a star, his value isn’t far from it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbSsnodclkY

While we know that Crowder will play an important role in the Cavaliers’ rotation, no one knows for sure exactly what that role will be. After two seasons as a starter, Crowder may come off the bench for the Cavaliers, but he won’t simply be the backup to LeBron James. Cleveland.com’s Joe Vardon has reported that Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue is working on lineups with James and Crowder sharing the court. With Isaiah Thomas likely to miss the start of the season, a lineup of Crowder, J.R. Smith, James, Kevin Love, and Tristan Thompson would likely be highly effective on both sides of the ball, while keeping Derrick Rose in his role as backup point guard. It would also ask a tremendous amount of James in terms of playmaking, especially when they can plug in an uninspiring but temporarily acceptable point guard rotation of Rose and Jose Calderon for the time being. Still, both analytics and traditional numbers tell us that Crowder is now the Cavaliers’ second-best wing behind James. He needs to play at least 30 minutes a night, and likely more against the Golden State Warriors, as his size and strength gives the Cavaliers a player besides James—and somewhat the aging Richard Jefferson—with at least the theoretical ability to guard Kevin Durant and Draymond Green. Even if Iman Shumpert is traded and Jefferson moves into the James Jones role, finding those minutes for Crowder won’t be easy with James, Love, Smith, Thompson, and (eventually) Thomas also deserving/needing that same kind of run. Something will have to give, but it’s a good problem to have.

At first glance, Jae Crowder seems like little more than capable filler in the Kyrie Irving trade. A solid veteran in a move that was headlined by All-Stars in Irving and Thomas, as well as an incredibly valuable first round pick. But if you take a close look at the 2016-2017 Cleveland Cavaliers, you’ll see that he was exactly the kind of player they needed. Jae Crowder doesn’t guarantee a championship for the Cavaliers, no player could against a team like the Warriors. However, he does put them a little closer while bringing a hard-nosed style of play that both his Cavalier teammates and the fans that follow them will soon come to appreciate.