In 2011, Sports Illustrated called him one of the NBA's 15 Greatest Rookies of All Time. Griffin made his NBA debut as a rookie the following season, in which he was selected as an All-Star, won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, and was named the NBA Rookie of the Year. During the final pre-season game of 2009, he broke his left kneecap, had surgery, and missed the entire 2009–10 season. Griffin played two seasons of college basketball for the Sooners before entering the 2009 NBA draft, when he was selected by the Clippers. Griffin won four high school state titles at Oklahoma Christian School under his father, head coach Tommy Griffin. In September 2022, Griffin signed with the Boston Celtics. In March 2021, Griffin signed with the Brooklyn Nets. In January 2018, Griffin was traded to the Detroit Pistons and played for them until 2021. Griffin was selected first overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2009 NBA draft, and has since been a six-time NBA All-Star and a five-time All-NBA selection. He played college basketball for the Oklahoma Sooners, when he was named the consensus national college player of the year as a sophomore. Consensus first-team All-American ( 2009)īlake Austin Griffin (born March 16, 1989) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA).National college player of the year ( 2009).Stats courtesy of unless otherwise indicated. Unfortunately, relying on Griffin not improving has been a sucker's bet for a half-decade. An even better version would border on unfair. The other 29 teams in the league had better hope Griffin is satisfied with where he's at now. So if Griffin ever adds a long-range shot to his game in the future, it'll have to be because he's worried about the sustainability of something he's doing now.Īnd given how wildly effective he's been with his current game, it's difficult to imagine what he'd have to lose in order to justify adding a three-ball. He's made concessions in some areas but added enough in others to sustain or increase his overall production. He also doesn't want to get clubbed while being four feet off the ground on dunk attempts, so he got smarter and smoother about attacking. He doesn't want defenses to ignore him as a pick-and-pop player, which would put undue stress on Chris Paul as a ball-handler in those sets, so he perfected a mid-range jumper. The changes Griffin has made to this point have mostly been about compensation. His jumper's story is one of progression, but Griffin's little in-between game-the flips, floaters and turnarounds from three to 10 feet out-has come seemingly out of nowhere. Jumper accuracy like this is a huge reason why Griffin is playing better than ever. Griffin's mid-range volume has increased in every year of his career, and his efficiency has been on a steady upward trend as well. Those long twos teams used to willingly concede -and which analytics still suggest are the kinds of shots good defenses invite -are going in at a frightening rate for Griffin. OK, so Griffin's shot is smoother, less hitchy and generally much more accurate from the mid-range area. But you can’t have confidence unless you have something representing good form.Īnd if you’ve put in the work, and Blake’s put in the work to have great form, he (ends up) shooting the ball with great confidence. He’s more confident, but that confidence comes from work. I always say it’s form, repetition and confidence are the three things to shooting. Redick, who knows a thing or two about marksmanship, told Dan Woike of the Orange County Register: Griffin is drilling a career-best 54.1 percent of his shots from 16 to 23 feet out in 2015-16, taking his mid-ranger from "work in progress" to "lethal weapon." Still, his growth in this area this season has been significant enough to warrant some coverage. You know about the improved jumper -that's been a thing for the past couple of years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |