I just don't get Joe Crawford

[DCWildcat]

What I don't get: Joe is a very unusual talent. Most players can be rather easily classified because many of their natural abilities correlate strongly with other abilities and their skill set. Randolph Morris, for example, is big, strong, coordinated and intelligent, but not particularly long or athletic. Consequently, he has very effective and often creative offensive moves (size/strength/intelligence), but isn't a particularly good defender or rebounder (not long/athletic).

Crawford is an enigma. He has some of the best hops I've ever seen. Now for most basketball players, that means they're both quick and fast. Joe is neither. And that's surprising; how often do you see someone with that kind of vertical bounce and that little horizontal spring? The strangeness doesn't stop there. On the surface, the form of his shot is less orthodox than even many of the posters on this forum. He jumps with his feet close together, on foot at least 5 inches ahead of the other, his left arm tucked in, and his body squared measurably to the left of his target. Yet he's a good shooter.

What could help his game: Basketball IQ is definately the biggest thing, but I don't know much about how to improve that (maybe others on this forum do). What do I know, though, is that he's not beating his man in the most efficient way possible.

When you drive by a defender, you should try to do the following
1) Cut as close to him as possible, ideally bumping shoulders
2) Once past the defender, get close to the imaginary line connecting the defender to the basket to seal him off to prevent him from catching back up to you.

Joe tends to try to go more "around" his defender than "past" his defender. Sort of analogous to a halfback who waits too long to turn the corner. Just improving this would help him significantly.

Here's a picture of what I'm talking about (sorry it's so crude). Blue is Joe & his path to the basket, red is his defender & path, yellow is the imaginary line connecting defender to basket.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2215187500076138580tkpKJShttp://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2537290820076138580PUEegw%5Burl=http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2537290820076138580PUEegw%5D%5Bimg=http://thumb0.webshots.net/t/54/154/2/90/82/2537290820076138580PUEegw_th.jpg%5D%5B/url%5Dhttp://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2537290820076138580PUEegw%5D%5Bimg=http://thumb0.webshots.net/t/54/154/2/90/82/2537290820076138580PUEegw_th.jpg

[DCWildcat]

Here's the incorrect path

[HillbillyCat]

I think what you are trying to say is that Joe doesn't slice the guy off and get himself between the defender and the basket. He makes a circle around the guy giving the guy a split second to recover and I agree...He should slice the guy off and then go ALL the way to the basket and not pull up and shoot a 6 footer. He has the hops to jump 4 or 5 feet from the basket and dunk the ball. This is what he should do, commonly known as ATTACKING the basket. As well as he can drive, he should be shooting at least 8 or 10 free throws per game......



Joe, in my mind, is kind of like Tucker for Wisconsin only a little bit rusty. Tucker learned to go all the way to the basket. This in turn will give him more open looks because the defender will have to sag off a little, because I think Joe is a better shooter than Tucker from outside.....

[SamKat]

You two appear to be good coaches, DC and HillbillyCat.

Azabuicke is a good comparison for Joe. Aza liked to go around, but when he asserted himself by using the pick and attacking the basket he wasn't easy to stop. Joe, Bradley, and Morris have to provide the experienced offense for this team to really excel.