Jamal Crawford = The Difference.

[niremetal]

Considering that the guy is the primary scorer, and averages a little less than 5 assists per game, one assist a game to Crawford is actually right on target. And that assist is predicated on Jamal making the shot.

Also, once you subtract JJ's ppg from our team's total ppg (102.3 - 21.5), Jamal scores 22% of our team's non-JJ points (17.5 / 80.8 = 21.6%, to be exact). So if 22% of JJ's assists go to Jamal, that is EXACTLY the proportion one would expect given our team's scoring distribution. As I said, I think people just see what they want to see.

Craw's "meal ticket" is himself. It's just that with JJ on the floor, he's not going to see nearly the double teams that JJ does. JJ, and not Crawford, is the guy that is most likely to get into the paint and take a shot, so opposing teams pay more attention to JJ. When they do that, it enables Crawford to go one on one on most occasions.

Exactly. No one said that JJ is Crawford's "meal ticket" in the sense of JJ creating Crawford's offense. Just that having JJ on the floor has opened up things a LOT for Crawford compared to past years.

Edited March 16, 2010 by niremetal

[Diesel]

Craw's "meal ticket" is himself. It's just that with JJ on the floor, he's not going to see nearly the double teams that JJ does. JJ, and not Crawford, is the guy that is most likely to get into the paint and take a shot, so opposing teams pay more attention to JJ. When they do that, it enables Crawford to go one on one on most occasions.

I would say more Josh than JJ. As Josh learns how to handle the ball better (and he has been better this season) he will be a guy for us to key our offense from. He will draw doubles because scoring in the paint is more practical than from 3. Still, if JJ were not here, I expect Jamal to handle the ball more (unless we got a PG in return).