Jamal Crawford is just one player who the league seems to have decided to shun...even though he has several more effective years left in him (he's only 32 years old).

The Celtics got a much needed win last night because they finally got help from their bench. Marquis Daniels stepped up big. Which reminded me of a phenomenon that I’ve discovered in the last year  or so: the NBA decides when a player starts to decline, not when he does.

I’ve liked Marquis Daniels since he was coming up with Josh Howard in Dallas. If I coached, I would play Marquis much more. Speaking of Howard, what happened to him? He is suddenly irrelevant, getting unsubstantial minutes in Utah. He was the toast of Dallas just a few years ago. I guess going to Washington corrupted him. Nobody goes through Washington without losing a bit of their soul; Mike Bibby, Kirk Hinrich, you name it.  They all saw a major downsizing in minutes once coming out of the Wizards franchise…

It’s weird how the league basically decides when guys are done. No matter how much someone has left in the tank, the forces of supply and demand in the NBA labor market just tell guys that they are no longer going to receive big minutes. Jamal Crawford, for example, saw his minutes slashed this year. To me, he seems completely fine and should’ve continued to receive starter’s minutes. But the league has decided that Jamal Crawford will play a diminishing role from here on out. Other guys like Crawford ad Josh Howard are Richard Hamilton and Corey Maggette (there are more that I’m struggling to think of). These guys can still play at a very high level, if you ask me.

Maybe someday I’ll be an NBA scout so I can prevent these guys from being faded out too early…