Isaiah Crawford Scouting Report
With production catching up on the potential of his physical tools, Crawford has an NBA appeal in his year's draft. What will be his role in the NBA? Which type of team will target him? Find out below
We have seen NBA front offices bet on prospects who measure out well. The archetype we mostly see is a team defender with the potential to grow as a defender in time. In the long run, the ability to separate them from their peers will be on the offensive end.
In Crawford’s case, his experience as a fifth-year senior will have to translate early on to keep him on an NBA floor. Winning C-USA Player of the Year and being an All-C-USA selection for three years are impressive additions to his resumé, making the appeal for a potential NBA career more clear for him.
Player Profile
At 6’6”, Crawford stands out with a 7-foot wingspan, giving him a solid base to become a plus-team-defender at the next level. The production matches the potential with his two steals per game in the last two seasons.
Crawford has fluid hips and a decent burst that gives him an advantage laterally to guard multiple positions. The translatable part for the NBA is him being able to guard at all three levels, with his rim protection and point-of-attack defense making him one of the better defenders in the C-USA.
At 220 pounds, the C-USA Defensive Player of the Year has a well-filled frame that allows him to guard four positions in college. However, on an NBA floor against better and stronger athletes, Crawford will have to add more strength in the next few years.
Offense
At the NBA level, Crawford will mostly be asked to serve as a slasher. With his decent burst, he can create separation against some NBA guards and wings, however, the lack of acceleration on his drives makes it harder for him to blow by his opponents. In most cases, Crawford relies on powering himself to the rim, making it more important for him to add strength to his frame in the upcoming years.
While finishing at 61% near the rim, Crawford should be able to put up better numbers due to his improving footwork. Another factor for him to produce early is his timing. He uses his jab steps and fluid hips often in terms of separating himself from his closeout defender before the launch to the rim, as seen in the second and fourth plays below.
An area of development for Crawford is his decision-making to go for his finish or to make the extra pass out of the closeout attack. His touch at the rim is good enough to convert more than 61% of his attempts, however, Crawford forcing his offense is an indicator of risk for a team’s offensive rating at the NBA level, which is something an NBA decision-maker has to consider when evaluating his profile.
Another must-have in his profile is being a reliable shooter off the catch. While putting up a 41.4% conversion rate on 3.1 three-pointers a game, the volume is good enough to make it feasible that it’ll translate early on in his NBA career. Mostly due to Crawford having four seasons of good shooting numbers on his resumé, with an improvement in percentage or volume each year.
However, when looking at his shooting release, Crawford takes a tad too long to load up for his shot after lowering the ball to under his waist. In a faster NBA game with quicker closeouts, Crawford might have to adjust his shot to be a more reliable shooter in the future. Mostly due to slow releases often making it easier for defenders to contest the shot and defenses to get set into a box-out mode to collect the defensive rebound.
What makes Crawford appealing compared to most other wing prospects is his ability to play bigger than he is due to his strength and long wingspan. This opens up the opportunity for him to play as a four in smaller line-ups, thus making plays as the screener. in a switch-heavy NBA game, we see teams run inverted pick-and-rolls or screening actions to free up wing spot-up shooters.
In Crawford’s case, the area of development is Crawford being more active with his screening. Most of his screens simply force a defense to make a decision. His quick relocation makes him a good pick-and-pop threat at the NBA level, but his level of screening has to improve in the long run to separate himself from his peers.
When evaluating his potential in the long-term as a scorer, his ability to make plays off the dribble via pick-and-roll sets will be crucial for his development. What stood out was his footwork and fluid hips, making his spin move a legit scoring weapon he’ll often defer to.
However, Crawford tends to overdribble on possessions, making it a risk in terms of a team’s pace and offensive rating and the outcome of the shot he has planned for himself.
There aren’t many developmental reps available in the NBA, especially for upperclassmen who mostly have to be ready on day one. Therefore, this most likely puts a cap on the potential an NBA would be willing to develop, which lowers the value of his draft profile. An important context in the above-mentioned is that at Louisana Tech, most of his attempts inside the arc are on self-created shots, which will be less at the NBA level.
In a faster-paced NBA game, Crawford’s value-riser is his offense in transition. Whether it’s him grabbing the rebound and initiating the offense himself, or making the right cuts to the rim as an off-ball player, Crawford did it in bunches at about 18% of his total shot attempts coming in transition.
The areas of development are that Crawford should pass out quicker in transition, whereas he holds onto the ball too long on some occasions. Another area is improving the quality of his passes, with the first play being an example. Most of his passes in transition are looking more like dropoffs instead of passes that’ll keep the receiving teammate’s pace on par.
Defense
On the defensive end, things become more interesting for Crawford. His 7-foot wingspan is an intriguing part of his profile. However, Crawford being able to use his physical tools while defending makes him a much more interesting profile for NBA teams. Considering that as a wing defender, he’ll be mostly guarding against spot-up shooters near the elbow while having to closeout on them quickly and efficiently.
What stood out is that Crawford has the defensive footwork to make his long wingspan an even bigger weapon. He consistently sets his feet very well, where his pivot foot keeps him in balance to be able to slide his feet quickly in case his opponent attacks his closeout.
However, against spot-up shooters, Crawford found a healthy distance that makes it harder for opponents to beat him off the dribble, while he’s still able to contest their shot by using his length. The three plays below are examples of the above-mentioned.
At 1.7 blocks this season, Crawford put up big numbers while not operating as a full-time rim protector. His block rate is at 5.8% and the intriguing part is that most of his blocks are when he’s defending the perimeter while closing out—this accounts for about 16% of his total defensive possessions.
Against more explosive wings and guards, Crawford struggles to match the intensity of their drives in the first few steps. However, his acceleration helps him to recover most of his plays from behind. At the NBA level, this doesn’t help his case due to the risk of the defense breaking down thus opening room for opponents to find an easy look down low. In the first and last play below we see Crawford coming up with the blocked shot in the recovery.
A tool to work with for NBA teams is his strength, which Crawford uses well to bring his opponents out of balance. Crawford is consistently showing he learned how to use his physical tools to his advantage. Despite the need to get stronger in the next few years, he’ll likely bring toughness as a closeout defender right out of the gates, which is an advantage an NBA decision-maker should keep in mind when evaluating his profile.
An area of development in Crawford’s profile is his defense against cutters. He tends to overhelp early in a possession, which is a risk for an NBA scheme that involves more ball movement. Despite him being an upperclassman, there’s potential for him to improve in this area. The mistakes he makes are mostly on the defensive rotations not being fluid, which hurts his defensive stance as well.
In the first and second plays below we see Crawford already rotating to help before he needs to. In the first play, the focus is on the ball handler, which leads to him missing his own assignment’s cut and thus the easy two points at the rim. In this second play below Crawford intercepts the bad dump-off pass to the big man, whereafter he initiates the transition offense.
Another area of development is that Crawford tends to ball-watch at times, with the last play being an example. Development, in the long run, comes with reps in a faster-paced NBA game, with him playing G League minutes in the future being a realistic outcome.
As a pick-and-roll defender, Crawford has a limited amount of reps throughout the season. However, what consistently came back in the defensive plays where the pick-and-roll ball handler became his assignment is that his decision-making and reads are consistent. This leads to the potential for NBA teams to tap into him more often as a weapon in stopping an opponent’s pick-and-roll plays.
In the first play below, Crawford is too late to cover the driving lane but recovers well on the play to contest the shot in the midrange area. The league is moving toward relying less on drop coverage schemes, therefore the second play is a better example of what he can do at the NBA level. Crawford aggressively goes after the screen and doesn’t allow the ball handler to enter the interior.
In general, his reads in pick-and-roll coverages are consistent. The disadvantage in his profile is that the sample size is limited which makes it harder to project in the long run. That’s something an NBA decision-maker has to consider when evaluating his profile.
To support the above-mentioned pick-and-roll defense, the intensity with which Crawford defends will be a good feasibility test to determine a long-term outlook for him as a defender. At 2.3 personal fouls in 33 minutes per game, Crawford shows he can play aggressively without putting himself into foul trouble.
In the first play, he positions himself a tad too close to the strong side, opening up the driving lane near the baseline. An important detail to his game is that after he gets beat off the dribble or the help defense arrives, he tries to position himself at 90 degrees from the ball handler. Mostly to cover the area in case of a drop-off pass or kick-out occurs. His fluid hips then help him to close out a tad quicker due to his positioning.
In the second and third plays below, he doesn’t allow his assignment any separation or room to operate in, keeping them at a close distance. Despite the foul being called and the last shot going in, the aggressiveness is something that’ll bring a competitive fire to a team, with an NBA team knowing he’s ready to take on the tougher assignments, which opens up room for him to remain on a team and grow in the long run.
NBA Draft Projection
With more NBA teams preferring wing-sized ball handlers who measure out well, Crawford is already having NBA teams considering drafting him this summer. His combination of knowing his physical tools and how to use them to his advantage, combined with his ability to play fast and knock down open shots makes it possible for him to have a role in a team’s rotation early in his career.
The two most crucial areas of development are Crawford’s tendency to ball-watch on defense at times while overdribbling on offense. In terms of Crawford reading the game and executing his reads consistently, it’s feasible that he’ll improve in the future when getting more reps — likely in the G League.
He’ll turn 23 years old around next season’s opening night. His NBA readiness is a plus in his profile. If Crawford can add strength to his frame, it’ll open up a more versatile role for him in the future; a large chunk of the untapped potential an NBA franchise will buy with his profile.
Based on the above-mentioned, I project Crawford to be selected in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft.