After securing a standard roster spot, the sharpshooting wing must translate G League efficiency into NBA rotation minutes to fill a defensive void in Ime Udoka’s rotation.
Many teams around the NBA have made significant changes, completely altering the look of the league. The Houston Rockets, on the other hand, kept most of their team intact this offseason. That ultimately shows the trust that the front office has in their roster construction, and converting Isaiah Crawford’s two-way contract to a standard NBA deal is a perfect illustration of that.
The deal is still non-guaranteed, so it’s not much of a financial gamble for the Rockets —— it is a pretty significant promotion for Crawford, though. He’s played in a total of 29 NBA games, and only 14 of those were with Houston last year. He’s in store for some big changes if the team chooses to keep him under contract.
After getting less than five minutes per game the past two seasons, he could get himself way more experience this year. I’m curious as to what that will look like, though. Will his contributions be more comparable to Jae’Sean Tate, or to a guy like Josh Okogie?
Last year, Okogie was arguably the Rockets’ best free agent signing, as shared on Roundtable. His play alone almost completely made up for Dorian Finney-Smith’s unfortunate lack of production. Okogie also averaged 17.4 minutes per games, which I definitely can’t expect from Crawford.
There’s just not enough minutes to go around, especially if health is on this team’s side. Ime Udoka likes to play his guys extended minutes, but Isaiah Crawford is in a unique position due to the roster construction.
The team was in need of guards last year. Now with the return of Fred VanVleet, plus bringing in Marcus Smart, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Bruce Thornton —— that problem seems to be more than solved. Losing DFS and Josh Okogie, however, left a hole in the wing positions.
I image Amen Thompson will be filling that role along with Tari Eason, but Isaiah Crawford can still carve out some minutes there. Especially if we see Eason going through any shooting slumps and/or dealing with injuries, which have become all too common.
While Crawford hasn’t been any more consistent from deep with Houston, he has proved his worth with the Rio Grand Valley Vipers. He shot over 40-percent on four attempts per game, per Basketball-Reference. Much better than his 23.1 percent with the Rockets.
In a make or miss league, that might be the biggest contributing factor when it comes to his playing time. He has high energy and effort, particularly on the defensive end and offensive glass, but that won’t be enough to guarantee him minutes.
Ime Udoka’s longtime favorite, Jae’Sean Tate, does those same things. Plus he has seniority and trust built. Tari Eason does those same things, too. Plus he’s the same age as Crawford with a much bigger guaranteed contract.
The coaching staff can find grittiness at the wing position elsewhere, so Isaiah Crawford will have to be a knockdown shooter to truly earn his minutes. Without that, I’d be a little surprised if he gets past a double digit average, and might be lower than Tate’s 8.8 minutes last season.
