Utah Jazz: 2017-18 player grades for Jae Crowder
By Mason McFee
Weaknesses
Jae Crowder is a good player, he’s just not a good player all the time.
During the regular season time Crowder spent with Utah, he scored in double-digits in all but six of his 27 appearances; all off the bench. That’s actually quite the impressive feat, considering he was playing with brand new teammates right in the middle of a postseason push, but when push came to shove, it felt like he was trying to skip to his favorite song while his teammates were just trying to put together the playlist.
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Crowder did have a few solid performances during Utah’s playoff run, but also had seven performances where he only scored seven points or less; including a one-point performance against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Luckily Utah won that game, and while it’s hard to pin a loss on just one player, when the rotations are shortened, excuses run out too.
Crowder averaged 29.4 minutes per game for Jazz head coach Quin Snyder, which, even in the playoffs, is essentially starter’s minutes. With that much responsibility, expectations are raised, and if you’re put in that position, you’d better put up or shut up. Crowder did more of the latter (without literally doing the latter), and certainly contributed to Utah’s magical run ending a little prematurely.
It’s unfair and frankly lazy to just label him a streaky shooter, because he is much more than that and has proven he can be a key contributor in both the regular season and the postseason, but Crowder will have to add more consistency to his game if he’s to maintain his spot in the rotation come next season.