FanPost

Jordan Crawford Has Been A Great Replacement For Leandro Barbosa

USA TODAY Sports

Leandro Barbosa was my favorite Boston Celtic when he was in green and white, but I'm officially on the Jordan Crawford bandwagon. Jordan Crawford is now my favorite Boston Celtic. Sure, Crawford looks awkward, "herky-jerky", has strange posture, and shoots at the weirdest angles, but all of those things make me enjoy his game.

He's unconventional, which is not always bad, but one of the things I like most about his game is that he has proven to be a great substitute for Leandro Barbosa. Barbosa looks a lot more controlled (and doesn't yell, "AND-1!", or "That's A Foul!") when he attacks the basket compared to Crawford, but their games are awfully similar, from an offensive standpoint.

The scoring numbers for both players are not stellar in a Celtic uniform overall, but they've had stretches where they've gotten the opportunity to play meaningful minutes and both got to do what was asked of them which is to just score, score, score.

Look at the numbers for each player's last 7 games (I use 7 games as my sample because neither player got less than 15 minutes of playing time during this stretch. Also, this does not count the game where Barbosa tore his ACL).

Barbosa: 8.7 points, shooting 43.9% from the field, and 39.3% from 3-point range in 22.6 minutes of playing time.

Crawford: 8.1 points, shooting 45.5% from the field, and 31.3% from 3-point range in 18.3 minutes of playing time.

The 3-point shooting of Crawford is down, but he hasn't been the greatest 3-point shooter anyway (he's a 30% 3-point shooter for his career).

It's not only his game, but it's also Crawford's attitude that I like. He has an unwavering confidence that I could only respect if you back it up with the way you play. In the last 2 games Crawford has played well with 13 points, shooting 55.6% from the field, and 33.3% from 3-point range in 26 minutes. Not bad at all.

Even though Barbosa was a more seasoned veteran, with more composure going to the rim, one thing that Crawford has in his favor is youth. Crawford being only 24 years old, as the potential to be a great shooting guard in this league, and not just the occasional monster scorer.

Once Crawford continues to get into a groove with the bench unit, could the Celtics possibly have a "Big-3" off the bench consisting of Green, Terry, and Crawford? Perhaps I may be a little optimistic here, but any of those guys can go for 15+ on any given night.

What are your thoughts? Has Crawford done a good job in replacing Barbosa? What would you say Crawford's ceiling is?

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