Isaiah Crawford: The Road Less Traveled
Isaiah Crawford: The Road Less Traveled
Louisiana Tech's do-it-all star, Isaiah Crawford, is preparing for the NBA after an interesting path.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”
The path to playing basketball for a living isn’t necessarily a path; it’s different for every player. I took a similar lead-in when I wrote about Brandin Podziemski last season. In that article—“A Path to Greatness”—I felt compelled to point out how players have different launch points. One could be a basketball prodigy, the next could have a family connection to the game, while another player can reach the pinnacle due to hard work and determination.
Not everyone is built for the grind, though. Others are like silver: they are refined by the fire and come out better on the other side of adversity. When you can combine a player who has been refined through the fire with a versatile and scalable skill set, you get someone worth taking notice of.
One such player who personifies an intersection of refinement, versatility, and skill is Louisiana Tech star Isaiah Crawford. Crawford was no basketball prodigy coming out of the state of Texas. You won’t find his name among highly recruited prospects, despite putting up good numbers in high school. After a couple of years of varsity basketball, Isaiah signed with the Bulldogs during the spring signing period in 2019.
His first season started fine. Isaiah averaged 8.3 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 1.5 APG, and 1.4 SPG, on splits of 48/32/61. He played in 16 games (starting in 10), but suffered his first knee injury in January of 2020. Crawford bounced back for the 2020-2021 season, playing in all 32 games for the Bulldogs—starting in 21 of those games. This was the first season that LA Tech would also feature now-NBA player Kenneth Lofton. That pairing led the Bulldogs in scoring and blocks. The Bulldogs went 24-8, and they were first in the CUSA Western Division. Individually, Crawford averaged 11.8 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 1.8 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.7 BPG, on splits of 49/38/66.
After a bounce-back season, Crawford suffered yet another knee injury that would end his season seven minutes into the third game. In just 65 total minutes, the hopes of stringing consecutive strong seasons would dissipate. Perhaps some would consider their basketball career done. It’s possible some would think that two season-ending knee injuries would make it next-to-impossible for a player to make their dreams a reality.
Isaiah would have another bounce-back campaign in the 2022-2023 season, playing in all 32 games—and starting them. With Lofton Jr. having made the leap to the NBA, Crawford became the leading rebounder for LA Tech while becoming a 40% shooter from deep. He also made the Third-Team All-Conference USA for the second time—the first time since the 2020-2021 comeback year. Despite putting up 13.7 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.9 SPG, and 0.7 BPG on splits of 50/42/73, Isaiah didn’t receive any combine invites. Perhaps teams needed to see how Crawford would play the next year. Maybe they needed to see if he would play a second consecutive season.
The Crunch
Minutes Percentage - 84.6
BPM - 8.4
Offensive Rating - 108.7
Usage Percentage - 25.5
Effective Field Goal Percentage - 53.2
True Shooting Percentage - 57.3
Offensive Rebounding Percentage - 6.3
Defensive Rebounding Percentage - 14.1
Assist Percentage - 16.2
Turnover Percentage - 19.1
Assist:Turnover- 0.9
Block Percentage - 5.7
Steals Percentage - 3.5
Free Throw Rate - 45.5
Dunks - 10
Two Point Percentage - 49.2 (123/250)
Three Point Percentage - 42.9 (39/91)
Crawford was very productive this past season. His conventional and advanced statistics reflect a player who has that refined and versatile skill set that was previously mentioned. He ranked in the Top 50 in BPM—which isn’t a perfect metric, but it is a fairly useful filter to sort prospects into a “watch list”.
Look at this crop of players with just minimal filters applied. First of all, I applied a filter to narrow the pool to players who stood at least 6’6” for players that had good size. The next filter applied—minutes percentage of at least 82%—is for players that were on the court the majority of the time. The last filer is for the aforementioned BPM, set to at least 8.
Tyson Degenhart of Boise State is an under-the-radar prospect that could have a strong draft season next year. Ryan Kalkbrenner is a well-known big man prospect who will likely get second round consideration next year. Riley Minix finished the season on a strong note, and will get his shot in the NBA—whether it’s in the second round or as an undrafted free agent. Baylor Scheierman has performed solidly in the combine, and he could be taken in the latter half of the first round. Then, we’re left with our guy, Isaiah Crawford.
Let’s check some defensive metrics.
Well, that was easy. Crawford was the only player to post a defensive rebound percentage of at least 12, a block percentage of at least five, and a steals percentage of at least three. What’s even more impressive is how his metrics compare to players that have come before him.
The following filter applies:
Height - At least 78 inches
Minutes Percentage - At least 82
BPM - At least 8
Assist Percentage - At least 12
Block Percentage - At least 2.5
Steals Percentage - At least 2.5
Free Throw Rate - At least 30
Three Point Percentage - At least 35
I mean, that’s a pretty impressive crop of players that does not exclude undrafted players. You might notice that the leader in steals and block percentages belongs to Crawford, and he fares favorably in a number of other fields. Sure, he does not have the apparent shooting upside as pre-draft Klay Thompson and Gordon Hayward, but Isaiah isn’t far from what Draymond Green and Otto Porter Jr. displayed.
With the crunch on Isaiah showing some interesting projection, let’s dive into some film.
The Dive
The path to draft prominence has been delayed due to some unfortunate injuries, but Crawford has been a very productive and efficient player for several seasons. As a freshman, Isaiah ranked in the 73rd percentile (Very Good) in all possessions including assists. That jumped to the 77th percentile (Very Good) the following year, the 53rd percentile (Good) in the shortened 2021-2022 season, and in the 76th percentile (Very Good) in his bounce-back season. The breadcrumbs have been indicating that he has been a good offensive player for quite a while.
On the other side of the ball, it’s been a very similar story. During his freshman season, Isaiah held his matchups to a field goal percentage of only 29.5%. The next season, players he defended only scored on 32.6% of their attempts. Prior to injury in the 21-22 season, Crawford only allowed matchups to score on 20% of their shots. The next year coming off of injury, opponents only connected on 39% of their shots.
The Offense
During this season, Crawford ranked in the 62nd percentile (Good) while playing the largest role of his career at Tech. It may not seem like a strong statement to be ranked 268th in points-per-possessions, but that ranks within 595 players that are credited with at least 500 possessions, per Synergy. That places him with players such as Jaylon Tyson, Carlton Carrington, Jamal Shead, Trey Alexander, Tristen Newton, Juda Mintz, Michael Ajayi, and Reece Beekman.
Shooting
It’s well-known that the path to playing time for wings and forwards requires several boxes to be checked. The most popular among fans is the shooting. For role players—or about 87% of a basketball team—spreading the floor for the stars is one of the simplest ways to provide value. While Isiah is not thought of a dead-eye from beyond the arc, he shown for several seasons that he is more than capable from being effective with the long ball.
I’m not going to tell you that Isaiah Crawford is a hyper-dynamic, self creator who can hit some of the wildest jumpers you’ll ever see. Conversely, he is more than just a stationary shooter. One of the concerns that routinely comes up within the seldomly-had conversations he pops in, is that he is considered to be a “low volume guy". That may seem to be the case at face value.
This tagline gets slapped on players that have good shooting numbers but, for what could be due to a number of reasons, evaluators may be a bit skeptical of the shot translating. Isaiah was just a hair under 43% on his threes on the year. This was on only 91 attempts, which computes to 5.5 threes per 100 possessions. In other words, he is a “low volume guy”—at least, for one season.
What seems to go underdiscussed with Crawford is the fact that he has had consecutive seasons shooting over 40% from range, and also shot just under 39% during his first post-injury season. For his college career, Isaiah is a 39.3% three-point shooter. Take out his two injury seasons, and he is a 40.3% marksman. It’s also worth noting that Crawford has improved his free throw percentage every single season.
In this clip against Middle Tennessee State, Crawford gets a bucket in a manner that should be replicated in the NBA. He starts off by dumping the ball off to the post. He then cuts through the paint and then to the weak-side wing, as the offense goes into a 2-5 pick-and-roll. The ball is backed out off the drive and swung over to the point, who rejects the screen set by the five coming back in to set a screen.
This prodding following the cut by Isaiah keeps the defense on their heels. The driving guard pivots back to the wing and kicks the ball out to Isaiah, who is wide open due to the pressure applied to the paint. It’s easy to envision Crawford being the beneficiary of a creator-screener action that has real gravity. Notice the range on the shot. Isaiah’s toes aren’t hugging the line; he is several feet beyond the arc. His shot isn’t rushed, but it looks like it takes a little time; the ball dips below the waist. The shoulders are squared up, the base isn’t narrow or wide—it’s very much the “three little bears”. The motion is clean, the ball doesn’t travel much on the way up, the release is high, and there is the “goose neck” that you want to see.
Money.
This clip shows more of what I was describing earlier: Crawford isn’t a stationary shooter. This clip starts out his the guard being forced to pick up his dribble. Crawford comes well past the arc to bail him out. What’s great about Isaiah is that he is pretty versatile positionally. Depending on the lineup around him, teams may feel comfortable matchup up their four against him. This clip shows our guy being defended by eventual NBA player, JT Toppin—a frontcourt player for New Mexico.
Isaiah receives the ball and recognized that he has the skill advantage on the wing. Crawford goes into a dribble set used to catch Toppin on a mistake. The freshman forward does a good job of not giving much of a driving lane to Crawford, but the savvy upperclassman gets into a sharp step-back dribble. This gives him the daylight to get his shot up.
The shot on the step-back is quicker than we saw on the previous clip and is obviously self-created. Even on this shot that requires a gather, Isaiah has a solid base, keeps his shoulder squared up to the basket, and has a nice, high release.
To continue to show the poise and cerebral nature of Crawford, I felt compelled to include this understated shot. The play starts with handoff that goes into a guard-big pick-and-roll. Isaiah is on the weak-side corner as the action starts. As the defense converges on the pick-and-roll, the ball is kicked cross-court to Isaiah. The defense recovers well, but Isaiah dissects the recovery with the precision of a surgeon.
He quickly up-fakes—which the defender does bite on. Crawford then takes a sharp jab step with his right foot. This is the understated aspect of Isaiah’s movement. It’s logical for the defender to believe that his assignment would drive on the recovery. For one, a respectable coaching staff would point out that Crawford drives on over 30% of his possessions. Secondly, the defender goes into the oft-utilized side-contest closeout. This technique allows a defender to contest a three with the hope of avoiding a foul. This also puts a defender in a base to shift back to travel with his man in the direction they are likely to drive.
This subtle jab step in the anticipated direction forces the defender to shift their weight in a recovery stance. That gives Crawford ample room to get a three up and in.
Here is another simple action that is used frequently in all levels of ball. Whether Crawford is better considered as a wing or a forward, there are no shortage of plays that use a shallow cut or a ghost screen. It can force a switch, and it can be masked as other actions.
In this clip against Liberty, we see the ball-handler on the left side of the court and looking to go into multiple screens. The first screen is set by the big, who immediately dives to the rim. This brings his man to the rim. Crawford then gets into position to set a screen. Isaiah’s man hedges the screen, while the ball handler’s man is still recovering from the first action.
What happens next is why a simple ghost screen can be effective—especially if it’s used as the secondary action in a play. Isaiah veers left, while—because the ball handler’s defender went under the screen (perhaps in anticipation for a drive)—both defenders are now on the ball. Crawford catches the a few feet beyond the arc and converts the three.
Crawford’s understanding of spacing and timing from beyond the arc shows how measured and purposeful he is as a shooter but what’s scary is that shooting isn’t even considered his best skill.
Driving
It was touched on earlier, but Crawford is quite fond of finding ways into the paint. He isn’t mistaken for a premier ball handler, but his technique, footwork, strength, and understanding of angles all coalesce when Isaiah chooses to put pressure on the defense. Since playing for the Bulldogs, Crawford has never had a free throw rate under 30—with this season’s 45.5 marking a best for him. This metric is indicative of a player’s aggressiveness and capability to force tough concepts on the defense.
In peeling back the layers to Isaiah’s game, we see here how he can weaponize the shot into putting pressure on the rim. Crawford is on the weak-side corner as the ball finds its way to the free-throw line. As the ball gets to the right elbow, the defense shows stronger help and condenses to the elbows. The weak-side defender is forced to slide over to help, which makes the defense susceptible to a skip pass over to Isaiah.
Similar to how he employed the jab step play we looked at earlier, Crawford shows a great read on the defense here. Once he catches the skip pass, Isaiah goes into an up-fake, to which his defender leaps to contest. When his man leaves his feet, our guy takes the ball into the heart of the defense. Isaiah can see that two men are going to meet him at the cup. One foot touches the restricted circle, and then Crawford goes up for the shot.
More strong than bursty, Isaiah is not bereft on ups. He leaps, draws in the two defenders, and goes in for a reverse layup. Crawford realizes that the weak-side defender sacrificed positioning on the opposite block to contest the layup, which gave room for the reverse. Great understanding of where the defense is, and use of the rim to help shield the defense from blocking the shot.
Against UTEP, we get another opportunity to see how Isaiah makes the defense pay for their miscues. Crawford gets the ball on the weak side again, benefitting from the ball handler getting deep position on the left block. This time there is no pump fake. While the defense scrambles to get into position, Isaiah catches the ball and instantly goes on the attack. The is a good control burst to the hoop, then Crawford goes up for the double clutch jam.
Easy work for our guy here.
Because of the way he was used at Louisiana Tech, Crawford would often be matched up against larger players on the other team. On this play against FIU, Crawford is defended by Seth Pinkney (#4). Pinkney is 7’1” and 200 pounds. Isaiah is a bit heavier, but is shorter by about seven inches.
Isaiah drives against the big man, opting to play through him instead of over him. As he presses to the rim, Crawford absorbs contact on his left shoulder but is able to maintain his balance. Staying on his line to the rim, Crawford is able to rise up and connect on the shot.
In an age where it feels like shots are allowed to either be from three or at the rim, it’s refreshing when players operate from the middle of the floor. Crawford ranks in the 74th percentile (Very Good) at the rim, and in the 90th percentile (Excellent) on jumpers from range. That’s ideal for role players, but high-usage players are more often given the latitude to put up shots mid-range. In this clip, we see the defense respect Isaiah’s ability to score from every aspect of the floor.
The play starts with a 1-5 pick-and-roll, which makes the defense collapse. Crawford rotates up from the opposite corner into the left wing—maintaining ideal spacing. A jump pass is used to get the ball over to Crawford. After a pump fake, Isaiah drives to his left with his left hand. This forces the help to scramble over to help. Instead of driving into a tough shot, our guy takes a few dribbles and rises up for the mid-range jumper.
Crawford ranked in the 84th percentile from mid-range.
Playmaking
When it comes to making plays, there is some room left for improvement. In an age when players are thought of as either “unicorns” or “busts”, it’s hard to say that a player is average in an area without feeling like you are slighting them and wanting to defend them simultaneously. However, that’s just where Isaiah’s playmaking is.
On a usage percentage of 25.5, Crawford put up an assist percentage of 16.2 and a turnover percentage of 19.1. The year prior, he had an identical usage percentage with an assist percentage of 19.7 and a turnover percentage of 20.3. Isaiah is naturally more of a play finisher than a facilitator, but there is a very capable decision-maker within his game.
In this clip against New Mexico State, Crawford puts some of his timely passes on display. Our guy decides to put some pressure on the defense by driving toward the right elbow. Once he gets into the defense, he puts his defender on his back and surveys the floor. This is sort of a go-to move for Isaiah.
His teammate Devin Ree (#0) opts to make a cut to run to the right wing. As Ree’s defender looks to cut the pass off, Devin makes a back cut toward the rim. Crawford is able to see the advantage his teammate created and deliver the pass over the top of the defense. Ree finishes at the rim for two points.
Against UTEP, we start this clip by seeing Isaiah establishing position on the strong-side block. Crawford gets the entry pass and then faces up. The threat of him driving even a short distance captivates the attention of the help defender around the rim, as he shows his presence to Crawford early. Understanding the rest of the coverage on the floor, Isaiah goes to put his back to the basket.
He is able to move his man, engaging the help defender even more. Crawford knows that his big man, Daniel Batcho (#13) is open on the opposite block, but his eyes follow the cutting Sean Newman (#4). Because his eyes are locked on Newman the defense stays put, allowing Batcho to remain open.
Isaiah’s spatial awareness kicks in, as he makes a leaping pass over the double team and into the hand of Batcho. He gathers the pass and slams the ball with the two-handed jam.
When Isaiah does deliver some of his more saucy passes, they do typically come while his back is to the basket. He can blindsided by additional help that comes from the weakside, or he can make the wrong read due to tricky help and deny activity. Observe.
Isaiah is able to get the ball along the free throw line extended, on a smaller, more favorable defender. Crawford faces up and spins back to take his man on the left block. The closest deny defender comes from the elbow all the way down to the block and takes a few swipes at the ball. This causes Isaiah to pick up his dribble. Once he does, Isaiah is quickly double-teamed. An errant pass misses its mark due to the quick trap, and rolls out of bounds.
Many of Crawford’s turnovers are of this variety. The good news is that it will be unlikely that an NBA team will look to have the offense flow through Isaiah on the block or on the elbow. His passes will likely be of the “next pass” sort. From there, Isaiah is more than capable of making the smart, connective pass.
The Defense
As if the offense wasn’t encouraging enough, we now turn to the side of the ball that will lead to Isaiah seeing the NBA court. While Crawford allowed the highest field goal percentage of his college career, that number was still below 40% at 39.3%. That includes allowing only 32.9% on three pointers on 76 credited possessions. When at the rim, Isaiah only allowed 43.9%—ranking in the 68th percentile (Very Good). With the insane metrics that we listed earlier, we know that Crawford can do a lot on the floor.
Drive Defense
Crawford’s spatial awareness on the defensive end is something that he has had for several years. Louisiana Tech has been creative with his positioning for seemingly his entire tenure. We can see in this clip that Isaiah understands how far to play off of his assignment to make life more stressful for the offense.
Middle Tennessee starts off this play on the left side of the floor, then works the ball over to Isaiah’s man. Our guy gives his man a driving angle to his left. Once the ball handler takes the bait, Crawford is on his hip the whole time to the hoop. The opposing big actually does a great job of sealing off the lane for the layup, but Crawford is able to stick with his man’s stride and block the attempted layup.
It’s worth restating that Crawford is listed around 6’6” with a reported 7’0.5” wingspan. His reach allows him to play much larger than his height would suggest at face value.
Rotation
Not only does Crawford’s frame allow him to play bigger, but it gives him an advantage when he is matched up against other perimeter players. There is a lot going on in this clip against FIU, but let’s take a look.
We’ll begin with Crawford closing out against his man, without giving any room. The ball is then handed off on a shallow cut, with the defense not switching. As the ball is worked to the top of the key. As the ball handler drives to the left block, Isaiah rotates over to the weak-side block.
The ball-handler is doubled on the block, who then kicks it back out to the left wing. From the left wing, the ball is worked back around to the right side for a pump fake. Crawford rotates back to his man, but has to help as his teammate bites on the pump fake. The ball handler throws an erratic pass that is tipped but recovered.
The ball goes to Crawford’s man, forcing Isaiah to hustle out from the driver and back to contest a three. With a textbook closeout, Crawford is able to recover and block the three-pointer. He then closes out the possession by gathering the rebound. That spatial awareness allows him to cover a significant amount of ground throughout that play.
Recovery
This play is not all that different than the one we just reviewed, except that one could argue that Isaiah covers even more ground.
Western Kentucky inbounds the ball to the strong-side corner, who then kicks the ball to the left wing. Crawford picks up the inbounder. The ball is then passed to the right wing while Isaiah switches to the man cutting into the lane. An entry pass is then made to the right block.
Crawford’s man is on the opposite wing, which gives him the leeway to give substantial help. As the big man works the block, he rolls baseline to kick the ball out to the corner. Isaiah is able to tip the ball, which gives the defense time to rotate.
Crawford’s former assignment begins a chain reaction of passes along the perimeter, which results in the defense having to switch. Isaiah flies from the left corner to the right wing in time to contest the three and forces the miss.
Timing
The rotational aspect of Isaiah’s defense is something to behold, but there is some defensive playmaking that Crawford can make on the ball. We’ll look at one in particular against Sam Houston here.
This play starts with a quick handoff to Isiah’s man on the left wing. What happens next happens quickly. Crawford recognizes that there is going to be a subsequent handoff coming from the left corner. He hard hedges the handoff, and then shows supercomputer-esque timing to rip the ball from his new assignment.
Once the ball is free, it’s off to the races for Isaiah, who gets out on the break and throws down the transition dunk.
Anticipation
From on-ball defensive playmaking back to some off-ball playmaking here against Jax State. The beginning of this play is Jax getting into a simple pick-and-roll action. Once the ball handler gets to the elbow, he looks to swing the ball to the opposite corner, who happens to be Crawford’s man.
Perhaps the ball handler underestimated Crawford’s reach, but our guy was able to pick it off. Isaiah gets into transition, pushes the break, and gets a contested layup to fall in. Creating points out of thin air is remarkably valuable, and Crawford is ranked in the 68th percentile (Very Good) in transition.
Curtains
It was reported on the 17th that Isaiah Crawford would forgo his remaining college eligibility to stay in the 2024 NBA draft. That is a bold move for a player who was not invited to participate in the NBA Combine. Crawford did, however, participate in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament. In those games, Isaiah played very stout defense, competed on the glass, and made sharp reads despite not having a nuclear scoring performance.
That decision could be a few things. Maybe he is betting on himself. Some players do that, knowing that they will at least land a two-way contract and believe that they will scrap their way onto a roster. Or, quite possibly, maybe a (or several) team(s) tipped their hand to Isaiah—letting him know that they intend to draft him. The latter is what I would believe based on his game and reputation.
Isaiah is coming off of a historic season in Louisiana Tech’s history. With players such as Karl Malone and Paul Millsap coming from the university, Isaiah is the first player in school history with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 200 assists, 100 steals, and 50 blocks. Despite that illustrious honor, Crawford now faces his next path: playing in the NBA.
Though the road Crawford has taken may have been less traveled, it appears to have made all the difference.
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I was made aware of crawford after Portsmouth. Some of my favorite guys came out of there. He has huge hands. And strong hands. In fact he altogether is very strong. One of my two favorite sleepers this year (enrique freeman is the other).