Phoenix Suns 2021-22 player previews: Jae Crowder has more on his physical and mental plate than anyone

Almost everyone on the Phoenix Suns is dealing with the emotional struggle of coming up short in the NBA Finals, the physical toll of another short offseason and the mental strain of already having to “put the axe to the root” again, as Monty Williams puts it.

But for Jae Crowder, none of this is anything new. In fact, he was going through the exact same thing last year, when his Miami Heat lost in the Finals in six games in mid-October. Barely two months later, he was starting another 72-game season on a completely new team.

“Just coming from the Finals that previous year coming into this situation, mentally I got fried at some point,” Crowder said at Suns Media Day. “I just got to a point where it’s just like, ‘Agh, I need a break. Physically I’m good, but mentally I’m just drained.’ I just think it’s something you have to go through.”

Heading into a full 82-game season, with another deep playoff run that ended in heartbreak weighing on his mind, what should the Suns expect from their starting 4?

A LOOK AT JAE CROWDER SO FAR

Last year, Crowder put up 10.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 27.5 minutes per game. He shot just 40.4 percent from the field, but made 38.9 percent of his 3s, attempting 6.3 per game. According to Cleaning The Glass, 74 percent of his non-garbage time shots came from beyond the arc, which ranked in the 94th percentile at his position.

It was clear the then 30-year old provided perimeter shooting as a stretch-4. He ranked in the 81st percentile in 3-point percentage, 91st percentile in 3-point gravity, 92nd percentile in 3-point foul rate, 98th percentile in 3-pointers attempted rate and 99th percentile on spot up points per possession (1.21), per The BBall Index.

What wasn’t always clear, or at least not for that first chunk of the season, was how he would mesh with the Suns’ preferred starting lineup of Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges, Crowder and Deandre Ayton. Through their first 16 games together, that lineup posted a -3.7 Net Rating in 200 minutes, by far the most of any 5-man group in Phoenix.

It got so bad that Williams experimented with starting Cameron Johnson and bringing Crowder off the bench just to shake things up. It did little to change the slow starts, and Crowder’s production just wasn’t the same coming off the bench:

• Jae Crowder as starter (42 GP): 28.8 MPG, 10.7 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 42.2 FG%, 40.1 3P%
• Jae Crowder coming off bench (18 GP): 24.3 MPG, 8.6 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 36.5 FG%, 36.1 3P%

Crowder wasn’t bad as a reserve. In fact, his point differential was significantly higher with the second unit. But that was a byproduct of how discombobulated the starting lineup was at the time, and how the bench group pulled them out of messes early on in the year. Crowder’s production was an unintentional version of breaking a plate or two while washing dishes: If you don’t meet certain standards, they might not ask you to do it again.

Crowder’s defense was also fundamentally important to the Suns’ starting five, especially after they got their act together and boasted a +8.0 Net Rating for the rest of the season. Crowder placed in the 92nd percentile in defensive position versatility and the 91st percentile in Defensive Real Plus-Minus, per The BBall Index, but nobody needed the advanced numbers to see his ability to defend wings on the perimeter and his strength to contend with bigger 4s.

Crowder’s interchangeability and interior bulk were things Cam Johnson simply didn’t bring to the table defensively. Johnson sneaking his way into the starting lineup has been a hot topic among Suns fans, but it’s worth noting that unless Crowder gets off to a dismal shooting start and Phoenix’s starting lineup suffers for it, that group has developed way more chemistry.

The question is, now at 31 years old, will Crowder continue to produce at the same level this season?

JAE CROWDER HAS MORE ON HIS PLATE THAN ANYONE

Throughout Media Day and training camp, Crowder has been frank about his process for taking care of his body. While he doesn’t like missing games due to rest, he understands that he and the Suns need to play the long game a bit more this year than they did last season.

“I’m just trying to prevent anything negative with my body going backward,” he said. “I’m just trying to do everything I can to prepare myself physically. Obviously it’s a thing that you can wear out a little bit mentally, but I think I’ve done a good job of just trying to take it one day at a time leading up to this point and trying to get my body into the best shape as possible. Obviously with the new guys, our younger teammates, I just try to tell those guys we’ve gotta take care of our bodies this year. It’s back to a normal schedule, so we will have days in between games where we can really take care of our bodies and minds, but we have to be really on top of it moving forward into this year. I’m aware of it, our coaching staff is aware of it, we’re just trying to do as much as possible just to have no setbacks in that area.”

Crowder said in a normal offseason, he would’ve tried to add new elements to his game, but with the condensed break, it was more about maintaining and sharpening his current skill-set. He admitted that last year, back-to-backs were killing him early on. Crowder had to change his diet and training regimen to get to the point where they weren’t as brutal anymore, but it was a new experience dealing with a Finals run and a shortened offseason.

The mental strain was worse though, and he felt it again this summer after the Suns squandered a 2-0 lead in the Finals against the Milwaukee Bucks. Rather than let it weigh him down, Crowder is channeling it. He’s also prioritizing his mental health this time around.

“I was hurt, I was upset, I was mad,” Crowder said. “I use that loss, another one, as motivation. Just to wake up at 7 a.m., hurting a little bit, I just use that as motivation just to get back, just to try to be a champion. I talked to my psychiatrist, I’m trying to build my mental capacity just to withstand and hold up better than it did last year. I don’t want to have those situations where I’m just not feeling it for a week because I feel like my brain is fried.”

For Crowder, communication with the coaching staff and his teammates will be key to managing the physical and mental work load. Fortunately for everyone involved, he has a head coach who more than understands.

In the offseason, Monty Williams said the Suns put up a sign at their practice facility that said, “Short breaks are earned.” It was an acknowledgement of what the team accomplished last year and their need to unwind a bit before gearing up again, but it also served as a reminder that short breaks come with the territory of being a Finals contender.

“We obviously are going to be smart, conditioning and getting guys back into game shape, but we embrace where we are,” Williams said. “And yet we also understand that we have to look at our guys in practice, listen to our strength and conditioning team and make sure everyone’s doing well from a conditioning standpoint. I had a really good talk with Jae, because he’s gone deep twice. We talked about the emotional toll of it all more so than the physical toll, so yeah, we’ve had a short break, but that’s what you want. And I hope that’s something that happens around here for a long time.”

Over the summer, Crowder went down to his house in Florida to relax by getting out on the water, fishing from his boat and spending some time with his family. Grappling with another Finals defeat, with coming so close to the ultimate goal and falling short again, was not easy.

But like his head coach and the rest of the Suns, Crowder understands there’s a lot more to life than basketball. Back in 2017, on the same day he was traded from the Boston Celtics to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Crowder’s mother, Helen Thompson, passed away from cancer.

Basketball took a backseat as he dealt with that heartache, but it eventually helped him find his way back.

“That was the first time ever in my life that I didn’t care about basketball. I was playing in Cleveland, and everybody in the media had wrote us off as NBA champions, and then comes trade deadline and half the team got traded. When I got traded to Utah, that situation helped me find my love for the game again.

“I think I came out of a slump where I didn’t care about basketball at the time and a new situation, a new environment helped me get back on track. And I think I used that as a stepping stool for anybody who asked me like they’re going through tough situations, how to get out of it, it’s just like finding your love for it again and have fun with it. I felt like when I started to have my love for the game again and started having fun with the game, I got back on track with being the Jae Crowder who I know and who the world knows.”

A Finals heartbreak and a condensed offseason would take a toll on anyone. Jae Crowder is going through it for the second time now, but his candidness about his mental struggles last year shows the type of inner strength that makes him such a respected veteran leader on this Suns team.

The streaky shooting, multipositional defense and smart playmaking are all staples of Crowder’s game in Phoenix. But as someone who’s been through this difficult turnaround before, and who’s experienced much deeper pain than this, Crowder will serve as a guide for this group as it navigates its way from Finals defeat back to another deep postseason run.