Jae Crowder, Senior, Small Forward, Marquette
Overview:
Much like fellow first team All-Big East representative, Kevin Jones, NBA teams seem to feel that Jae Crowder’s massive production at the college level is not enough. For you see, cover the ears of nearby children…he is a tweener. Crowder, it appears, will not have a position at the next level, his draft stock dropping as a result. Never mind the fact that he just won Conference Player of the Year in one of the toughest conferences in the nation. Forget that he worked on his game to see a huge increase in his stats, almost across the board. He can shoot; he can score and pass. Crowder is a good rebounder and one of the best at stealing the basketball on the defensive end. However, scouts feel that he is much too small to play power forward and yet does not have the perfect game to play small forward because of a lack of foot quickness or explosiveness getting to the rim.
Final Projection:
This happens all the time in the NBA draft. College basketball superstars dominate on the floor but then drop come draft day because there is something inherently “wrong” with their game. This can come in the facade of lack of size or speed, funky shooting form, an off-court issue, etc. In Jae Crowder’s case, it seems that he has either the wrong size for his speed or the wrong speed for his size, neither being good. He will most likely be taken in the second round of the draft because of this. There is an outside possibility that he might even go undrafted, which would be a shame, but might also be the extra motivation he needs to excel as an undrafted free agent.
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