Lowe: Felton, Crawford Among NBA's "Most Disappointing"

Zach Lowe of SI.com writes that Portland Trail Blazers guards Raymond Felton and Jamal Crawford are not among the top-10 disappointments in the NBA so far this season, but they are honorable mention.
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Jamal Crawford (SG) and Raymond Felton (PG), Portland Trail Blazers: Forgiven based on the pace and shot-creating they are providing a solid Portland team. They will not be forgiven if the low shooting percentages (both) and massive turnover rates (Felton) sustain long term.
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Hat tip: Brother Wendell Maxey

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter

4 months ago Ben Golliver 11 comments 0 recs |

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If only they played up to their career averages

we’d be a pretty good team:(

"We gotta get this $#!^ together guys!" - Phil

by 420Phenom on Jan 20, 2012 12:50 PM PST reply actions

Is there a correlation there?

The fact that they’re not playing to their career averages thus we’re not a good team, or is it we’re not a good team thus they’re not able to play up to their averages?

I don't always root for an NBA franchise, but when I do, I prefer the Portland Trail Blazers.

by Oh. Em. Gee. on Jan 20, 2012 1:06 PM PST via mobile up reply actions

I don't think so. At least not with Felton.

No way the team has anything to do with him shooting 15% from deep. Jamal might be forcing it a bit, even by his standards.

by Jpar on Jan 20, 2012 1:11 PM PST up reply actions

The former.

If we had Dre starting and a Leandro Barbosa type coming off the bench, I feel like we would have more wins then we do now.

"We gotta get this $#!^ together guys!" - Phil

by 420Phenom on Jan 20, 2012 1:12 PM PST up reply actions

Yes

I think everyone is trying to adjust. Felton and Crawford are new players; Nate is pushing a new fast-tempo system; old players are adjusting to new players and pace.

Reading LA’s interview with Rome on the front page it seems like the team is inside their own heads a lot trying to figure things out. LA is trying to learn how to play with Felton, who he says has a fast attack mentality v.s Andre Miller’s slow methodical style. Reading LA and Matthew’s comments it seems like everyone is inside their own head monitoring and judging what they are doing instead of just going with the flow and trusting their ingrained skills, mechanics, and basketball instincts.

I think when they play at home the fans cheer’s takes away the self-doubt and reinforces their confidence which eliminates self-talk… but on the road they are too in their own heads

my 2c

by odiek on Jan 20, 2012 3:04 PM PST up reply actions

Felton has nowhere to go but up

His shooting percentage is horrible, especially the 3pt percentage. Again I think this is him being inside his own head too much, over thinking,and psyching himself out instead of trusting his skills and letting it flow on the court.

There was an article about him being self-critical and asking Camby to cuss him out in one of the earlier games. A challenge for this personality type is to be able to forget their mistakes and focus on the next play… which I don’t think he is doing. Another article I read before hints that athletes that can forget their mistakes immediately are often the ice-in-the-vein killers (Nash, Kidd with lots of turn-overs but forgets it and keeps playing, corner backs who get burned but forgets it and keeps playing, etc)

by odiek on Jan 20, 2012 3:08 PM PST up reply actions