Report: Celtics acquire Jordan Crawford for Barbosa, Collins

Source: Wizards guard Jordan Crawford will be traded to the Celtics.

— David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) February 21, 2013

I know, right?? It’s EXACTLY the big splash you’ve been waiting for.

The Celtics are reportedly going to acquire Jordan Crawford from the Washington Wizards, in exchange for Leandro Barbosa

Celtics will send the Leandro Barbosa expiring contract to the Wizards for Jordan Crawford, league source tells Y! Sports.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) February 21, 2013

UPDATE:  the deal also includes Jason Collins

#Celticstalk: #Celtics Jason Collins expected to also be included in deal w/ #Wizards for Jordan Crawford, sources say.

— A. Sherrod Blakely (@SherrodbCSN) February 21, 2013

So who is Jordan Crawford… in a nutshell, he’s a gunner that loves to shoot but doesn’t do it very well.  He’s a career 40% shooter but he’ll light it up on occasion.  Let’s let the ESPN folks take it from here (Insider link):

Shoot-happy guard who takes terrible shots. Capable passer when mood strikes.
+ Very quick and has a good handle. Can finish, but poor long-range shooter.
+ Abysmal defender. Undersized for 2. Must add strength and dial up effort.

Analysis
Crawford is the most superficial of basketball talents, a high-scoring gunner who takes terrible shots and barely tries on defense. Last season he averaged an impressive 21.4 points per 40 minutes, but only by dragging the offense to its knees — Washington, the league’s 29th-ranked offense, barely improved with Crawford on the floor.

A shot-happy guy who can’t make shots very well and who doesn’t try very much on D.  I’m sure that’s going to go well.  Here’s his shot chart from this season, just for fun:

He’s ok if he shoots from the right side of the floor.  And getting him for Barbosa, whom the Wiz could just waive or pay minimum wage until the end of the season, then the Celtics at least turned an unusable player into a usable player… and they didn’t give up a tall guy with potential to do it.

So we’re all going to have some fun with this trade because Crawford is, quite honestly, not very good.  He’s an NBA player that the Celtics got for nothing.  So in that sense… it’s not horrible.

UPDATE

The addition of Collins to this deal makes it fairly clear the Celtics are about to add some more bodies somehow.  Though the deadline is currently over, there could be some more work done as deals we haven’t heard yet are finalized.  At the very least, Collins will be replaced by someone, and probably soon.

Here’s a YouTube clip of one of Crawford’s good games.