Who else is ready for the relentless praise that Jae Crowder will get during the playoffs for being a “steadying veteran presence” for the Jazz? If he even has one good game, we’ll hear all about how he replaced the immature, not-quite-ready-for-the-big-time Rodney Hood with the gritty, no-nonsense, defense-first Crowder. I can already hear it in my mind and we’re still a week out from actual playoff games.
National commentators love storylines and this one is perfect, even if Crowder has been a mild disappointment (he’s shooting 39% from the field with the Jazz, worse than his field goal percentage in Cleveland, and everybody hated him there). I guess Rodney Hood has been a disappointment in Cleveland too, so it was like an even swap of players who you thought could help you in a specific way but ended up not doing that so much.