Down C’s memory lane
Crowder settles in with Utah
LAS VEGAS — He’s pretty quick on the court, but Jae Crowder was even swifter with his response when the discussion at summer league turned to how the Celtics had blown up their 53-win team from 2016-17 and got it together to improve last season.
“Brad Stevens is still there,” said Crowder.
The 6-foot-6 forward was among the parts torn asunder last summer, going with Isaiah Thomas, Ante Zizic and the coveted Nets pick to Cleveland for Kyrie Irving. Crowder was then part of the Cavaliers’ trade deadline purge, winding up in Utah as part of a threeteam trade.
He likes where he is now, enough to come to Vegas to hang with some teammates and watch the Jazz’ summer league entry play, but he maintains Boston ties and is therefore well aware of how things are going with the Celtics. Perhaps, more importantly, why they’re going in this upward trend.
“At the end of the day, Brad Stevens is there,” Crowder said of the Celts coach “And if he’s still there, they can make a lot of stuff happen.”
And, by the way, the players happen to be pretty good, too. Crowder keeps in touch with some who remain from when he was a Celtic, and he’s followed their individual progress.
“Damn right,” he said. “All of the young guys got better. Terry (Rozier) and Jaylen (Brown) definitely got better. That’s what it comes down to. And they’ve got pieces. You got Kyrie and you got a lot of different pieces. And you’ve got Brad Stevens, so it works.”
Crowder has spoken recently with Rozier and Marcus Smart, two of the young players he helped mentor in his three seasons with the C’s.
“I’m surprised they haven’t re-signed Marcus back,” he said.
After a few moments going back and forth on the factors — Smart hoping for much more, his restricted status, fewer free agent dollars — Crowder nodded.
“It is a strange market,” he said. “It’s tough. It’s kind of funky right now. I just hope they get it worked out.”
Things have worked out all right for Crowder after a turbulent summer of ‘17. The trade from Boston, a place he’d come to embrace, and vice versa, was of little relative concern after his mother succumbed to cancer shortly after.
The road was rocky for the Cavaliers when he was there, but things have settled down now that he’s with the Jazz, a team for which his father, Corey, played some 25 years ago.
“I feel like I’m in a good situation, a good organization,” Crowder said. “They understand me. They talk to me, communicate well. I’m with a great group of teammates. This is the first time in my career that I’ve been in Vegas in July with six teammates. That speaks volumes of what we’re about and what our organization’s about, to set up staff to have us come out here and be together.
“I don’t go anywhere in the summer, so that should tell you how different this is.”
Crowder also acknowledges that his career began to look a lot different when he grew into a key component in the Rajon Rondo trade with Dallas. The deal had Rondo and Dwight Powell going to the Mavericks for Crowder, Jameer Nelson, Brandan Wright, a $13 million trade exception and draft picks that became Guerschon Yabusele and Demetrius Jackson.
Crowder became a starter with the Celtics, who rewarded him with a fiveyear, $35 million contract when he became a free agent.
“I’m very appreciative of everything that happened in Boston,” he said. “No hard feelings at all. None.”
And he’s bullish on his old team’s chances.
“I mean, the East is the East, too,” Crowder said. “Everybody is playing in the West right now, so they should be on top for a while.”