A lot of times in the NBA Draft sphere, evaluators and teams alike often discredit a prospect's long-term outlook and value simply because of their age. However, in today's NBA ecosystem, it's becoming more and more apparent that winning on the margins is the most effective way to build a contending roster in the league. Ensuring that every player in your rotation is capable of playing a role that is conducive to winning basketball games is incredibly important. That's why it's becoming less and less important that every single top prospect is under the legal drinking age. Every draft class will jump the shark at some point during draft night where immediate impact becomes far more valuable than pipe dream potential, and when that happens, older prospects should leap to the top of draft boards. Jacob Crews is an older prospect who very clearly has a lot to offer when it comes to making an impact at the professional level, and if he continues to improve next season, I see no reason why he wouldn't be a very viable selection in the 2025 NBA Draft. The elite sharpshooting transfer coming off his junior season at UT Martin is bound for Missouri, giving him the opportunity to showcase his talents in the SEC.
pc: UT Martin Athletics
Player Profile:
Jacob Crews, born on July 17th, 2000, is a 6'8" and 210lb wing from Hilliard, Florida. He was a dominant high-school prospect at Hilliard High School, averaging a double-double in all four years of his prep career. He then attended the University of North Florida for his freshman and sophomore seasons, where he didn't see many minutes and wasn't very impressive when he was on the floor. That led him to transferring down to the junior college level, playing a year for Daytona State College where he finally found his rhythm and greatly exceeded expectations. He had one of the best seasons in program history, and finished his year being named to the NJCAA All-American second team and the Central Conference Player of the Year. He then transferred back up to the division one level, joining the UT Martin Skyhawks for the 2023-24 season. In his lone season with UT Martin, Crews averaged 19.1 points per game, 8.2 rebounds, 1.1 assists, .8 steals, and .5 blocks on shooting splits of 48.5% from the field, 41.4% from beyond the arc, and 81.6% from the free-throw line. Those numbers garnered him high-major attention, which led to him entering the transfer portal and eventually choosing Missouri as the final destination in his collegiate career.
Interior Scoring:
I've seen Crews come up in a few draft conversations, and when he does come up it's mostly concerning his outside shooting. However, I was very impressed by his scoring acumen at all three levels. Now, I do agree that his three-point shooting is his most valuable skill, but his ability to score in a variety of different ways is what makes him the offensive talent that he is. He's very good at attacking the rim, using a deep bag of tools to do so. His shot making from beyond the arc does admittedly open the floor up for him from a paint penetration perspective, but his efficient ball-handling and change of pace skills are what makes this possible in the first place. He's an incredibly smooth operator on these looks, and at his size and with his athletic profile that results in easy buckets at the rim.
Crews is not a lead ball handler, in fact, he's more of a catch-and-shoot outside threat than anything. However, he can quickly turn into an elite play finisher in the half-court when he decides to be. In all three clips above, he receives a pass beyond the arc, which alone allows him to attack the hoop. Why? Because opposing teams gameplan to closeout to him very quickly not only because he's a great three-point shooter, but also because he has a very fast shot motion and release. He is also very convincing with his shot fakes, ensuring that opponents fly past him on these possessions, creating a ton of space which he uses to apply rim pressure.
Something that makes Crews such an effective scorer in the half-court is his ability to accelerate and decelerate on his way to the rim. Not only this, but also that he's comfortable scoring at the rim in both situations. In the first clip above, Crews drives away from the rim before using a spin-move to redirect himself towards the hoop and going up for the layup. Here he creates an easy look for himself because he doesn't rush into the paint. By first moving away from the basket he neutralizes the two interior defenders, who have to monitor their matchups in the corners. This left the paint open, and by the time he spun around his man he was able to take advantage of this. The second clip shows something different, as he drives straight to the rim once he realizes that his man is going to end up on his hip. He also sees that the interior defender is approaching the free-throw line, leaving the paint open. He immediately accelerates to the rim and gets the easy layup. The kicker on these clips? On both plays he uses only two dribbles. That efficient use of his dribbles and the length and vertical pop that allows him to go up for these layups from farther away shows off both his natural tools and his skill with the ball.
While his offensive game is largely predicated on off-ball scoring, the same cannot be said for his interior scoring game. He doesn't do a ton of cutting and you're not going to see him rolling off of screens, but he's a good enough finisher at the rim that when he does do these things he is usually successful. He's a smart player and is always incredibly active on the offensive end, so it would make sense for him to be a solid cutter. In the clip above he sneaks behind his defender along the baseline before finishing through traffic at the rim. A lot of times he does a little too much floating around the perimeter, and while this does often have good results for him, I wish he would do more of this throughout a game to further round out his offensive skillset.
Mid-Range Scoring:
Because he's such a savvy offensive talent, he doesn't take a ton of mid-range shots. That's not because he's not proficient in this department, but because he knows that it's the least efficient shot in basketball. That said, the ability to diversify one's offensive game and knock down the mid-range jumper from time-to-time makes a player significantly more dangerous on this end of the floor. Crews does look good taking these shots and will incorporate them into his shot diet simply to throw off opposing defenses. He's a true three-level scorer, and his ability to consistently knock down the mid-range jumper was the final piece to completing that ever-elusive puzzle.
I'll start with the floater before I get into the jump shots. I was impressed by the clip above because I noticed that he used a ton of the skills that we just talked about in the interior scoring section to get to this floater. He receives the ball on the perimeter and immediately gets his defender up in the air and off-balance. Once the defender is on his hip he drives towards the interior defenders before spinning to the open side of the paint and going up for the floater. Once again, he only puts the ball on the floor twice on this possession. That ability to basically mimic a play that resulted in a layup but finish with a floater is a perfect example of his offensive versatility. It would be impossible for an opponent to predict how this possession was going to end, and that's what makes him so difficult to defend.
Now onto the traditional stuff. The clip above is one of my favorites in this entire article, because it's such an obviously translatable action. UT Martin ran this play a ton this season, but a lot of times it resulted in a pull-up three. In this example, he immediately moves inside the perimeter and attacks the drop big. Of course, the drop big...drops. He takes advantage of this by pulling up for the mid-range jumper, which is incredibly impressive considering he has to stop on a dime to get into his shot motion. The big man actually gets a decent contest on the jumper, but because Crews' shot motion is so quick it doesn't end up mattering. Now, the pull-up three would technically be the better shot here, but him showing that he's capable of pulling up from the mid-range causes the defense to hesitate the next time this play is run for him.
I must admit, I'm a sucker for an old-fashioned turnaround mid-range jumper. This year I was enamored with Riley Minix's game, who took a ton of these shots (I was right about him by the way). I don't really have to break this clip down because it's so simple, but there are a few things that stand out to me about it. Again, his shot motion is incredibly fluid and difficult to defend. What makes this shot impressive is that Crews is very clearly thinking about his next move as he backs down his defender. He sees that the entire opposing team is on the left side of the floor, so he goes as far right as he possibly can on his turnaround. He ensures that no other defender can assist his man when he goes up for the shot, so all he has to do is elevate over the contest which he does easily. He doesn't take a ton of these shots, which in theory is for the best, but when he does, he looks incredibly comfortable and knocks them down at an efficient clip.
Three-Point Shooting:
As I've mentioned several times throughout this article, Crews is primarily known for his outside shooting acumen. He shot almost seven threes per game this season at a 41.4% clip, and the degree of difficulty on a lot of these shots was higher than your average catch-and-shoot three. He has grown a ton in this department, as he wasn't a great three-point shooter in his first two years at North Florida. That could lead one to believe that this year may have been an outlier, but everything about his shot mechanics and the types of shots he was taking leads me to believe that this is a cemented aspect of his game at this point in his career.
Crews is an elite catch-and-shoot threat and off-ball mover. At 6'8", he has proven himself to be one of the best movement shooters in the country. His height allows him to get shots over oncoming contests and his ability to get into his shooting motion before his feet are set allows him to get shots up before those contests even come. He also has no issue taking these shots from well beyond the arc, making him dangerous at all times when he's on the offensive end. The second clip shows him getting a shot off in transition after he trails the ball-handler down the court. This ability to decelerate to his spot and get his shot off in one fluid motion makes him a massive threat on transition opportunities.
The clip above shows a few things that I think are very valuable when evaluating a talented outside shooter. First, look at how respected he is by the defense. As soon as he catches the ball he's met with a pretty voracious closeout, and once he avoids that and puts the ball on the floor the defense's immediate instinct is to collapse on him. Second, the composure he shows on this play perfectly illustrates how experienced he is. He could have easily passed the ball once the two defenders began to hedge towards him, but he knows that those defenders won't end up fully committing. Had he passed it here they likely would have ended up with a worse shot than he ended up taking. I don't think he was actively thinking about all of this as this play was happening, but instead I believe that stuff like this comes so natural to him that there was never a doubt who was taking that shot. That's the sign of a confident and experienced shooter, and stuff like this is why he had such a fantastic shooting season.
Crews isn't some sort of prolific outside shot creator, preferring to operate off-ball and make things happen once he's already in an advantageous position. However, that shooting confidence we just talked about is very apparent when you watch him play, and he'll occasionally take shots like the two you see above. Whether it be a pull-up three in transition when there's a wide-open teammate standing under the hoop, or a side-step three from way beyond the arc, sometimes a shooter is just going to shoot. Shots like these tell me that there's likely more in his outside shooting bag than we see on a regular basis, but with that said I'd argue that he will continue to be at his best when he's looking for his shot without the ball in his hands.
Playmaking & Passing:
Considering that Crews isn't a primary ball-handler, he doesn't see a ton of opportunities to pick up assists or set up his teammates. However, I do think he has some passing skills, and on occasion he will show them off. He only averaged 1.1 assists per game this season and had a 1.1/1.3 assist-to-turnover ratio. At face value that doesn't look great, but when you remember that this is an off ball outside shooter you realize that he's simply not asked to do much playmaking. That said, I'd still trust him to run some offense, and because I'm a fan of the game, I'm a sucker for the occasional flashy pass.
Both of these examples show Crews picking up very replicable assists, which leads me to believe that if he were asked to handle a larger playmaking load, he would be alright. In the first clip you see him taking his man off the dribble and driving to the rim, much like he does when he's scoring at the rim. The only thing he does differently here is drop the ball off to his big man for the easy dunk. In the second clip he's handling the ball in transition, which isn't super common for him. However, he really isn't challenged by the defense here, and he's able to get an easy look at throwing the lob. Being able to throw an accurate lob is a great litmus test for passing feel, at least in my personal opinion. Now, the sample size for Crews isn't great, but I'm going to assume based on his overall feel for the game and his age/experience that he has good passing feel.
Rebounding:
Crews' biggest swing skill really may be his rebounding. He's an excellent rebounding wing and has been since high-school. He averaged 8.2 rebounds per game this season, two of which are offensive rebounds. What makes him such an effective rebounder is simply the tenacity with which he crashes the glass. He rushes the rim on almost every shot that both teams take, including most of his own shots. He's also very good at converting on the offensive rebounds that he grabs, resulting in a few extra points per game. After his outside shot, I would consider his two-way rebounding impact to be his second most translatable trait to any level of the sport.
Jacob Crews perfectly combines effort and a willingness to crash the glass with solid interior scoring acumen to make a major impact as an offensive rebounder. That said, any 6'8" lanky athlete CAN be a good rebounder, but no player will be good on the boards if they aren't willing to put in the effort. When a guy like Crews, who is naturally positioned to be a good rebounder, is also willing to put in a consistent effort on the boards...he's going to make a positive impact as a rebounder.
Defense:
Crews isn't known for being some sort of lockdown defender, but I actually found myself impressed by the impact he made on this end. Similar to how his physical tools allow him to be an excellent rebounder, he's also built to be a good defender. His height and length on the wing are above average, and he is a very good athlete. He's mobile and agile enough to defend quicker players on the perimeter, and while he's not necessarily a good interior defender, he's athletic enough to be decent in help.
It's plays like these where Crews is able to make his biggest impact on the defensive end. He's not a great point-of-attack defender, as (like most people) he isn't as quick on his heels as he is when he's accelerating on the offensive end. However, he's often able to cover his matchup well away from the ball and can assist as a help defender when asked to do so. His IQ does translate to this end, and he's not a guy who you have to worry about being in the wrong spot or falling asleep defending off the ball. All in all, even when he's not breaking the game on the defensive end, he's not a guy you have to worry about hurting the team as a defender.
Again, he's at his best defending away from the ball and helping when necessary. In the first clip above you see him pick up perhaps the easiest block of all-time simply by being in the right place at the right time. The second clip is probably the most impressive one in this entire article. Just an emphatic block with perfect timing. He's all the way out of the play when the pass is made to the rolling big, and he's able to come over and completely erase the easy dunk. He doesn't always show off his athleticism, as his game is primarily predicated on skill and finesse, but here it just pops off the screen. When a guy is capable of swatting shots like this, there's no world where he can be considered a negative on the defensive end.
Summary:
Before I summarize Jacob Crews' game, I want to list out any and all aspects of his game that I would consider to be a weakness. I will say, this isn't a negative, and all players have a myriad of weaknesses that need to be worked on before making the leap to the next level. Like many experienced collegiate talents, Crews has far less weaknesses than his peers. He has spent several years polishing his game, and now he's far less flawed than most players that I cover.
I'd say his biggest weakness is his lack of self-creation from the perimeter. He's excellent off-ball, but when he attempts to create his own shots from deep, he doesn't create easy offense for himself. Some players never develop self-creation skills, but it's always something to strive towards.
I'd like to see his mid-range pull-up volume increase this season. I don't want him to take more of these shots than he does threes or attempts at the rim, but I don't think a few extra mid-range shots per game would hurt.
He's great at getting defenders off their feet when they're closing out, but he doesn't draw many fouls beyond the arc. He needs to get better at taking advantage of these opportunities in order to get to the charity stripe more often.
As I mentioned, I actually do think he's a decent passer, but we can't be certain until we see his playmaking responsibilities increased. I'd like to see him get more reps as a primary ball-handler/playmaker next season.
Similarly, he doesn't have a super tight or controlled handle. He prefers to use body feints, shot fakes, and spin-moves to create easier offense. This is fine, and it's a legitimate skill to be able to score using as little dribbles as possible (ask Klay Thompson) but strengthening his handle would only result in positive outcomes.
Defensively, he could work on his lateral movement in order to become a better point-of-attack defender. He's never going to be asked to be a primary defender at the next level, but when he is thrown into those situations, he needs to be able to handle them.
In summary, Jacob Crews is an incredibly polished offensive talent who combines a ton of natural physical tools with a skillful approach to the game. He's a guy who can punish a defense in so many different ways, making him a nightmare for opposing coaching staffs. He's able to operate at all three levels of the court, and can also rise above the rim with his impressive vertical pop. This is a guy who is a few supplementary skills away from being the complete package on the offensive end. On defense, he's no gamebreaker, but he's able to make a positive impact as a lanky and athletic help defender. He's a player who has consistently improved throughout his career, so there's no reason for us to believe that his growth will stop with his move to the SEC. I fully expect him to be one of the best players in his conference next season, and if he continues to grow and get better in the aspects of the game where he knows he needs to improve I don't see why he wouldn't be in draft conversations for the 2025 cycle. I'm excited to see him tested against stronger competition, and I look forward to revisiting him down the road as we look towards potential NBA draft candidates.
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