In the midst of a tumultuous season, the play of Knicks’ guard Jamal Crawford may seem like an island of calm. Crawford, advertised as “The Closer” in the promotion posters at the Garden, takes most of the team’s biggest, game-on-the-line shots. Also, the lanky guard uses his length efficiently in the passing game, averaging 1.31 steals per contest, one of the team’s few defensive pluses. Crawford has also steered clear of the many off-court controversies that have enveloped the team this season.

Unfortunately, under closer examination, Crawford’s play is hurting the Knicks. Unless his worst tendencies are reigned in, there will be fewer and fewer late-game opportunities for him to shine.

Although Crawford plays point guard in some situations, he’s primarily a shooting guard, and like most Knicks starters, he’s not picky enough in shot selection. Crawford is shooting 39.9% this season. How bad is this? Consider for a minute that Crawford’s backcourt mate, Stephon Marbury, is shooting 42.3%, and even Marbury’s most ardent defenders acknowledge that he could choose his shots a bit more selectively.

And it gets worse. Crawford is shooting an utterly abysmal 28.2% from behind the arc. There are no small-sample size caveats to sugarcoat this. Through 16 games — yes, we’re through a fifth of the season already — Crawford has taken 78 shots from behind the arc, nearly five per game. And although Crawford possesses a very good crossover move that should enable him to get to the rim when he wants to, he isn’t using it. He is shooting only 4.3 free-throw attempts a game, a sure sign that he is settling for outside jump shots far too often.

The New York Sun’s John Hollinger has devised a metric called True Shooting Percentage and it gauges shooting percentage plus a bonus for hitting 3-pointers, and factors in free-throw attempts, since most are a result of shooting fouls. Among all shooting guards, and players who have played significant time at the two, Crawford ranks 70th in the league this season at 50.7%. Just for comparison, Jason Terry of the Mavericks, a player with similar tendencies as Crawford, ranks ninth with a True Shooting Percentage of 61.2%. What’s the difference? Terry averages 21.3 points per 40 minutes; Crawford tallies only 17.1. Now, when the Knicks are getting blown out of the building, four points is a drop in the bucket. But in most games, four more points could mean the difference between a win and a loss.

Some of Crawford’s woes may be a reflection of the team’s poor offensive design. For the first 15 games, the Knicks tried having both center Eddy Curry and power forward Zach Randolph play in the low post. This was the NBA’s equivalent of having two antivirus programs on your computer. Their overlapping agendas diminished each other’s strengths and led to an overall decline in the team’s effectiveness. For Crawford, this has led to fewer opportunities to attack the rim in the half-court offense due to the traffic jam in the paint. It has probably added to the number of bailout shots (desperation jumpers taken late in the shot clock) that he has had to take.

Against Phoenix Sunday night, the Knicks’ offense began to show off some new designs. Randolph generally worked away from the paint and set up near the elbow, which worked since he has a nice touch on midrange shots. In theory this is a great idea. In practice — well, it probably needs more practice. Crawford shot a meager 2-for-11 on the night, in part because he went 0-for-5 from behind the arc. But he did drive to the hoop more often, and attempted six free-throws. Randolph, who is also shooting a poor percentage, (yes, among Knicks starters, only Curry is hitting an above-average percentage of his shots) continued his season-long slump, hitting only 8–19.

Still, by clearing the paint and allowing the guards to drive, the Knicks had one of their better offensive showings of the season. On Sunday night, the Knicks’ offense played as well as the offense of this season’s Boston Celtics. Unfortunately, this eruption came against one of the best teams in the league, and the Knicks’ defense let them down again, as Phoenix shot 58.4% and had an Offensive Efficiency rating of 123.4 in the 115–104 win.

What’s interesting about Crawford is that his current problems with shot selectivity have occurred before. Early in his career in Chicago and his first year with the Knicks, his shooting percentages were poor and he rarely got to the free-throw line. Then, two seasons ago under coach Larry Brown, Crawford improved on both counts. In the last season and change, he’s given back most of those gains. Crawford is valuable on the defensive end. According to the metrics at 82games.com, shooting guard is the only position where Knicks opponents are performing below the league average, and Crawford deserves most of the credit for that accomplishment.

Marbury and Randolph are probably set in their ways as inveterate gunners, but Crawford has seen the light before and has improved his shot selection. If the Knicks are to improve on their miserable start, he’ll need to get the shot selection gospel again.

mjohnson@nysun.com