Last week, the Golden State Warriors acquired Jordan Crawford and MarShon Brooks in a three-team deal with the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat.
Golden State sent backup guard Toney Douglas to the Heat, while Boston received Miami’s reserve center Joel Anthony and a second- and protected first-round draft pick (originally from the Philadelphia 76ers).
Jeff Goodman of ESPN reports that the Heat will save between $6.4 and $15 million in salary and luxury taxes. The Celtics, for their part, pulled the trigger based on accruing future draft assets and clearing the way for the return of starting point guard Rajon Rondo.
But what about the Warriors? How does this trade look from their perspective?
In a word, the ‘Dubs won—and won big.
Let’s first establish that the Warriors starting five is one of the best in the business. Point man Stephen Curry powers a contingent that rocks the third highest scoring total (80.6) and differential (plus-6.5). It leads the NBA with a 21-6 overall record.
On the flip side, Golden State boasts the most futile group of bench scorers. Douglas and Co produced just 22.8 points per game at the time of the trade.
Douglas himself contributed a meager 3.7 PPG and added just 1.0 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 0.3 steals. His offensive win shares computed to a negative-0.1.
A man that fancied himself a backcourt stopper and three-point shooter compiled a paltry 0.1 defensive win shares and a career-low 32.2 percent from distance.
ESPN’s Kevin Pelton also notes that the Warriors averaged only 89.0 points per 100 possessions with Douglas on the floor. And with Kent Bazemore—the backup to the already backup Douglas—they tallied just 79.3.
Both of those totals are significantly lower than the Warriors 104.0 points per 100 possessions overall—big duh.
Now enter: Jordan Crawford.
Crawford ranked third on the Celtics with 13.7 PPG and a 16.2 player efficiency rating. He was adept at both creating his own shot and distributing to his teammates, as evidenced by his 5.7 APG.
He also was tops in Boston with 1.8 offensive win shares (2.6 in total).
Through two games with the Warriors, Crawford has converted a fantastic 70 percent of his shots, not to mention 80 percent from downtown. He has tallied three rebounds and three assists as well in 29 minutes off the bench.
Okay, this is quite a small sample size. But Crawford has matched what he accomplished as a reserve in Boston during the first four games of 2013-2014.
He averaged 9.8 PPG, 66.8 FG%, 58.3 3P% then, and 9.0 PPG, 70.0 FG%, 80.0 3P% now. He has shown that he can both pull up from distance and drive to the basket without hesitation in a similar role in Golden State.
Is Crawford the all-encompassing answer behind Curry? Certainly not.
He compiled two separate back-to-backs of sub-30 percent shooting and went through a 5-of-29 and 1-of-15 stretch from three-point range as a member of the Celtics.
He is a streaky shooter who at times falls into lulls riddled with minimal production.
Yet, that occurred on a struggling Boston team that could not sustain consistent success, never mind a fully functioning roster.
The Warriors will find what they so desperately need from Crawford: A confident leader off the bench who can score, run the floor and dish out to his teammates.
Crawford is an undoubted upgrade over Douglas and Bazemore. He’s also a superior addition to the aging Andre Miller and offensively deficient Kirk Hinrich.
Second-year general manager Bob Myers surely did right by the Warriors with this trade.
And as a former successful guard in this league, head coach Mark Jackson will extract maximum output from his new backcourt talent. The proof is in the 21.5 PER pudding.
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