The Emergence of Blake Griffin

I said a while back I'd do a full blog on Blake Griffin and I completely apologize for not getting to it I kind of forgot about it. I'm sure all of you were so eager to read my thoughts and were let down when I did not post anything (In reality it's the complete opposite I'm sure) but none the less here it goes.

I have been known in the past to have a strong dislike for Blake Griffin's basketball ability, as recently as this past November or so I've been vocal in saying that Blake Griffin does nothing but dunk, sure he's a terrific athlete but he has no ability besides dunking the basketball and I'm sure others would agree with me in saying that. This is because ESPN and other sports media outlets focus only on the "highlight plays" rather than the games themselves. This is good to a degree but can also be a fault as well and in Blake Griffin's case it is a fault. I started to really focus on Blake Griffin and his whole body of work as a basketball player once Chris Paul went down due to injury. I started noticing astounding "ticker stats"(Stats you would see on a ticker on ESPN for example: Points, rebounds, assists) from Griffin after Paul got injured. This surprised me because as an ignorant fan of Blake Griffin's I wondered how he could score 34 in a game just based on dunks? I then decided to dig a little deeper into Blake Griffin and I came to the realization that maybe this man that I once thought could only dunk improved in various facet's of his game. However when I looked at his season statistics they are not that different from his previous season, a slight increase in points per game 24 this season from 18 the previous year, also a small improvement in his rebounds per game roughly 10 per game this season compared to 8 last year. So on paper not a super improvement so what was causing these great statistics? I had to find out for myself.

I sat down one Thursday evening and watched a Warriors-Clippers game on TNT just to see how Blake could be doing what he had been doing recently. Then I finally found out, I was no longer an "ignorant" Blake Griffin fan. He had indeed improved in nearly every area of his game. He had become a much better post defender(which is good considering he was an awful defender throughout his first 3 seasons) for one but it wasn't his defense that caught my eye it was the fact that he had developed a jump-shot ranging to about the top of the key. He had also developed post moves that would make Kevin McHale proud (or maybe not since he coaches a team looking up at the Clippers in the West). I was now enlightened into how much he had improved and then I also looked how much of a catalyst he had become for the Clippers in Paul's absence. Let's just take a gander at Blake Griffin's statistics during Chris Paul's absence:

January: 26ppg, 8rpg on 56% shooting

February: 30ppg, 11rpg on 55% shooting....wait what?

Games in which Chris Paul missed: 28ppg, 9rpg

Impressive February is it not? Now stats do not matter if the team doesn't win which makes this even more impressive. In the 19 games that Chris Paul has missed this season the Clippers are 14-5 (41-20 overall) and those 14 wins included a 6 game winning streak. How could this be? How could the Clippers succeed with out their leader and best player Chris Paul? Who could they rely on? DeAndre Jordan? Jared Dudley? HEDO TURKOGLU???????? None of the above Blake Griffin is the main reason the Clippers succeeded and continue to succeed this season. I think Blake Griffin finally matured as a player and because of this the Clippers are still a legitimate threat in the Western Conference. If Griffin would've played like the Blake Griffin of his first 3 seasons the Los Angeles Clippers would be fighting for a playoff spot and would not be in the position they are now. He took the leadership position on that team and was able to keep them afloat.





With all this being said I believe Blake Griffin has molded himself into a superstar in the NBA something NBA fans have been waiting to see since he came out of Oklahoma in 2009. Once he gets more exposure and ESPN starts showing his overall game rather than just his highlight plays people will start to realize that he is force to be reckoned with. I know either Kevin Durant or LeBron "The Dark Knight" James (I would love to rage on the topic of SportsCenter reporting on THE TYPE OF MASK LEBRON IS GOING TO WEAR FOR THE HEAT'S NEXT GAME but I'll hold my comments) will win the MVP but I leave you with this question: Does Blake Griffin after all he's done for the Los Angeles Clippers this season deserve MVP considerations? Just something to ponder as you wait patiently for my next blog entry.....

-NS(@NolanPSchmidt)