The Miami Heat solidified their chances with a midseason acquisition of Jae Crowder, Andre Iguodala, and Solomon Hill. Here’s “Ja3’s” grade for the year.
The NBA is a cliché of a league and the Miami Heat are not immune to it. Often times you hear about the big midseason trade to “push them over the top” or to “solidify their postseason run”, but nothing is guaranteed.
The move could end up turning into a flop, for naught, or become a pointless one if it doesn’t work out or blows up in the face of the team that did the deal. That wasn’t the case in the Miami Heat’s situation though.
The trade that they made during the middle of the season for a package that included Jae Crowder, Andre Iguodala, and the less heralded but just as important, Solomon Hill, was a home run winner for the Miami Heat.
Without that trade and subsequently, the services of those three, they wouldn’t have made the run that they made. Specifically for Jae Crowder, he almost became a totally different player for the Miami Heat.
The Miami Heat needed pieces to step up to make this run. Jae Crowder heard the call and answered it.
In 45 games for Memphis this past season, Crowder shot 29.3 percent from deep on 5.9 attempts. On almost nearly another whole attempt per game, 6.4 for the Miami Heat, Crowder shot 44.5 percent from deep.
Not only is that a phenomenal number to put up as a finishing percentage shooting, but to have that kind of drastic improvement from team to team is almost unheard of. We are sure glad it happened though.
On top of his timely and deadeye shooting, Crowder was his usually scrappy self. He fits the Miami Heat Culture like a glove.
He plays both sides, he isn’t scared to stick his nose in the fray, and he always plays with maximum and immense hustle/effort. That is Jae Crowder in a nutshell and why he was so crucial to us after coming over this season from Memphis.
For the Miami Heat this season, here is Crowder’s Grade.
A+
He has expressed an interest in remaining with the Miami Heat and we hope they get it done. Here is Crowder’s superlative for the season.
Most likely to go from left wide open to being double-teamed over the course of 7 games
He was absolutely key to us this season and we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish what we did without him. This was his season grade and superlative.
The Heat want to maintain flexibility, so a ton of people tend to think it will be a bloated one year offer to keep cap flexibility but whatever the case, keep this man in the fold. He and Jimmy Butler make one heck of a tandem along the wings.