Rastapopoulos
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Okay, so he's pretty much driving us crazy. BUT. We have no better alternatives. Sometimes Crawford looks better, mainly because he can actually score and will hit his threes not as infrequently as Felton. But Crawford has even more tunnel vision, and is a worse defender. Felton's +/- on the year isn't terrible (and is way better than Crawford and (to my surprise) WAY better than Batum's. So, for how horrible he looks out there, the Blazers have been winning while he's on the court.
Now, you might say that any fool could put up those +/- numbers with our starters, and that if you switch Crawford in there, their +/- would similarly switch. That may be true. And what worried me last night was that, after bricking open three after open three, he PASSED ONE UP that we really needed him to take (well, make). While this showed self-awareness that would be admirable in another context, you want your NBA players to treat each shot as if it's the first one he's taken on a day when he feels he can't miss. Otherwise decent players suddenly become Nick Anderson at the free throw line. In other words, he's Starting To Doubt Himself.
Sadly, I think the best option is probably to stick with him and try to encourage him through his shooting slump. Of course, that won't cure his only-slightly-above-average PG skills and maddening tendency to commit turnovers that instantly turn into dunks on the other end, but what's the alternative?
It seems to me that there are 4 decent-ish NBA PGs likely to be available, either already or soon:
Jose Calderon
Mo Williams
Ramon Sessions
Luke Ridnour
My worry with each of them (but especially Ridnour, who will be much MORE available if Juan Jose Barea ever gets healthy) is that they have terrible +/- scores. So while they can all (except possibly Sessions, although he is better this year) shoot much better than Felton is (hell, in theory Felton can shoot much better than he is), they might be a big step down in defense. I know people don't think much of Felton's defense, but he's done creditable jobs on people like Chris Paul, whereas the above players are matadors.
Of them all, I like Williams best, and would like to swap Crawford for him and have Felton be our backup PG (you know, just like in Denver, that caused him to ask for a trade, so he could be a starter, thus proving that he shouldn't be a starter) because I think he would actually be a solid spark plug off the bench and improve our other bench players' performance. I think the Clippers might do that. But as it is, I don't see an easy solution. I fear we're stuck with him. Certainly there's no way we could get a player as good as Andre Miller for him...
Now, you might say that any fool could put up those +/- numbers with our starters, and that if you switch Crawford in there, their +/- would similarly switch. That may be true. And what worried me last night was that, after bricking open three after open three, he PASSED ONE UP that we really needed him to take (well, make). While this showed self-awareness that would be admirable in another context, you want your NBA players to treat each shot as if it's the first one he's taken on a day when he feels he can't miss. Otherwise decent players suddenly become Nick Anderson at the free throw line. In other words, he's Starting To Doubt Himself.
Sadly, I think the best option is probably to stick with him and try to encourage him through his shooting slump. Of course, that won't cure his only-slightly-above-average PG skills and maddening tendency to commit turnovers that instantly turn into dunks on the other end, but what's the alternative?
It seems to me that there are 4 decent-ish NBA PGs likely to be available, either already or soon:
Jose Calderon
Mo Williams
Ramon Sessions
Luke Ridnour
My worry with each of them (but especially Ridnour, who will be much MORE available if Juan Jose Barea ever gets healthy) is that they have terrible +/- scores. So while they can all (except possibly Sessions, although he is better this year) shoot much better than Felton is (hell, in theory Felton can shoot much better than he is), they might be a big step down in defense. I know people don't think much of Felton's defense, but he's done creditable jobs on people like Chris Paul, whereas the above players are matadors.
Of them all, I like Williams best, and would like to swap Crawford for him and have Felton be our backup PG (you know, just like in Denver, that caused him to ask for a trade, so he could be a starter, thus proving that he shouldn't be a starter) because I think he would actually be a solid spark plug off the bench and improve our other bench players' performance. I think the Clippers might do that. But as it is, I don't see an easy solution. I fear we're stuck with him. Certainly there's no way we could get a player as good as Andre Miller for him...
