{"id":51372,"date":"2023-06-30T12:55:58","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T16:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=51372"},"modified":"2023-06-30T12:56:48","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T16:56:48","slug":"torrey-craig-nba-free-agency-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/06\/30\/torrey-craig-nba-free-agency-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Torrey Craig Free Agent Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">As the Suns made a\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/06\/19\/bradley-beal-what-does-he-bring-the-suns\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">blockbuster trade for\u00a0<\/span><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Bradley Beal<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">,<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0the news turned toward\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/craigto01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Torrey Craig<\/span><\/strong><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">and his free agency status.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Background\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Torrey is a seasoned player. Having stints with a few teams, including the Nuggets, Bucks, Pacers, and now the Suns, Craig experienced a lot in the NBA.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Nevertheless, Craig is\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/stats\/_\/id\/2528693\/torrey-craig\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">coming off his best season<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0as a professional. He is a valuable role player in the NBA, and teams can use his services this upcoming season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">So, what does Craig bring to the table?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Torrey&#8217;s Strengths\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<h4><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Shooting\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Torrey is an improved, and excellent shooter from three-point range. Last season, Craig shot 39.5% from three. He is a good corner, spot-up shooter, and teams can use Craig effectively, as a shooter. Torrey also went 7.2 percentage points in his shooting, so he made excellent strides in his shooting. In a league dominated by the three-point line, Craig&#8217;s evolved shooting gives confidence for his future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Defense\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Craig is known for his defensive capabilities. He is a strong, intelligent defender and guards multiple positions on the court. Torrey has close to a\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/sports\/more-sports\/2023-phoenix-suns-player-review-torrey-craig-continued-to-prove-value-bringing-110percent-effort-nightly\/ar-AA1d78QA#:~:text=In%20addition%2C%20Craig%20is%20an%20extremely%20versatile%20defender,passing%20lanes%20and%20initiating%20fast-break%20opportunities%20off%20steals%2Fdeflections.\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">seven-foot wingspan<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, so he disrupts perimeter players and can guard forwards in the post as well. His defensive versatility allows him to find playing time because teams trust he can defend multiple positions at a high level. Craig plays with incredible effort on defense, so teams would get the best from Craig on the defensive end.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Craig&#8217;s Weaknesses<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">While Torrey Craig possesses good attributes, he does have some weaknesses in his game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Lack of Offensive Versatility\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Craig is not a versatile offense player, as he either shoots threes or drives with his right hand to the basket. In the Playoffs, his lack of shot creation put more pressure on other players to step up to fill that gap. Therefore, he has to show he can do more on the offensive end when his shot is taken away. Craig needs to show more comfortability driving to the basket and alleviating pressure from the Suns&#8217; or other teams&#8217; offensive stars.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">While he is deemed a 3-and-D role player, Craig can stall the offense when he cannot get threes off against good defenders in the postseason. Furthermore, he has not improved that skill set over the last couple of years. Craig must add more to his offensive game to help create better offensive opportunities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Last Word\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Torrey Craig is a solid role player. He is good defensively and can shoot the three at a high mark. Craig would help teams striving for the playoffs, or an NBA Championship. If he can work on his weaknesses offensively, he allows himself to be a more attractive target for teams in free agency. It will be interesting to see what the Suns will do with Craig.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the Suns made a\u00a0blockbuster trade for\u00a0Bradley Beal,\u00a0the news turned toward\u00a0Torrey Craig\u00a0and his free agency status. Background\u00a0 Torrey is a seasoned player. Having stints with a few teams, including the Nuggets, Bucks, Pacers, and now the Suns, Craig experienced a lot in the NBA.\u00a0 Nevertheless, Craig is\u00a0coming off his best season\u00a0as a professional. He is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4688,"featured_media":51390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,62,3],"tags":[4964,2152],"class_list":["post-51372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-suns","category-nba","category-news","tag-2023-nba-free-agents","tag-torrey-craig"],"modified_by":"Jacob Stephens, Associate Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4688"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}