Griffin Agrees with Chris Paul

[Quake Griffin]

MK I'm on my phone.

May you please edit in the ESPN article?

Feels good to know he's embracing his role and is intent on being a big part of our 4th quarters.

[mkwest]

Blake Griffin agrees with Chris Paul

If Chris Paul meant to challenge his teammate Blake Griffin when he said recently that the Los Angeles Clippers will "definitely go as Blake goes," it worked.

Not only did Griffin hear his teammate's words, he also agreed with them.

"[Paul] has a huge role on this team," Griffin said Thursday in an interview with ESPNLosAngeles.com. "He's been the guy who has closed out a lot of games late for us.

"But in my mind, this is the year I need to step into that role and really help him shoulder that load. I'll be right there with him at the end of games, being the guy that he can always count on."

"To be honest, I'm more excited about this upcoming season than I've ever been," Griffin said. "My workouts with [shooting coach] Bob Thate and our coaches have been geared around figuring out how I'm going to be used this season.

"I'm doing a lot of stuff at the elbow, a lot of shooting. One of the things [new coach Doc Rivers] said to me was, 'I don't want you to be afraid to go 0-for-15.' In other words, just have the mindset of a shooter. And with the work I've done this summer, I'm starting to get that confidence and think like a shooter."

"We've been working on a lot of face-up stuff in the post," he said. "I'm definitely going to be used differently this year.

"This summer has been so great for me. I've had a completely healthy, full summer to be able to work with our coaching staff, once I got over the ankle thing. This summer has been huge for me, and it's one of the reasons I'm so excited about next year."

Ramona Shelburne, ESPN Los Angeles

[mkwest]

It's great that he's embracing the responsibilities that come with being a leader of this team. He's become a more efficient player, but he has to remain aggressive as well.

I don't know how much work he's put in with Thate so far, but the good thing is that his training should be uninterrupted this summer. Last summer, he started with Thate and then had to shut it down to recover from the injury he sustained with the Olympic team. With more available time to put in, he should try to find a couple of hot spots from the floor imo. He showed progress last season, so I'm confident that Thate can help push his shooting to another level.

[og15]

Face-up is really where Blake can shine the most. At his size you can't just have your primary form of creating be back to the basket. The ability to hit from 10-17, he doesn't need to shoot further than that will get defenders closer, and him not wasting dribbles with fancy moves that go nowhere will help. He needs to be quick and decisive with the ball.

It's also great to see him working on skills that correlate to where and how the coaching staff wants to use him, that's how teams should operate. If you look at all the non-monster successful offensive big men they had outside games. They could hit jumpshots consistently and could face-up and attack defenders, so this should be great for Blake.

I hope both his confidence and accuracy increase, and he will not only be able to, but will deserve touches to end games.

[azncorruptedo17]

i've always thought of bg as a better amare [better as in less major injuries so far xD]

game recognize game.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqs0Zf_TJ2c[/youtube]

[LACtdom]

Just paraphrasing... blake said that doc didn't care if he went 0-15 as long as he had the confidence to keep taking shots. Last season I wasn't a fan of blake taking jump shots and I always wished he backed down into the post more. I have a question for you guys.

Do you guys think that Doc wants blake to expand his offence more because DeAndre has no shooting ability and he wants blake to spread the floor more or does he just want blake to be the best he can be? I'm hoping this means that Doc is going to try to transform DeAndre into a monster in the low post. He has so much athletic ability. Jordan can camp down low and blake with the ability to take a jump shot, or drive to the basket for a slam, will have more control of the offence. IMO the improvement of DJ and blake will determine the success of Reddick, Dudley and Barnes (offensively).

[mike3]

This is great to hear, love Blake acknowledging that he has to step up his game, especially in the big moments we need him to.

I really like hearing him talking about his face up jump shots, but I actually have to agree with LACtdom.

I don't want to see him just non stop shoot jumpers, I hope the coaches around him don't forget just how much of a beast he can be on those strong power drives/ post ups. Sure, he needs that elbow jumper but considering he scored 20+ PPG in his rookie/second season WITHOUT a jump shot. I just hope he doesn't forget how powerful and strong he is.

[og15]

The jumpshot is there to open up the face-up game. So take them when you're open, but the primary objective is to get to the basket on straight drives, drive and spin, create plays facing the basket, and remember he's still going to be involved in pick and roll action, he isn't getting iso's all game, so that will also have him going towards the basket.

i've always thought of bg as a better amare [better as in less major injuries so far xD]

game recognize game.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqs0Zf_TJ2c[/youtube]

If Blake actually had his shooting and scoring game he would be better because he has much better court-awareness and passing ability, he's actually better with his back to the basket than prime Amare, is a better defender and a at his best a better rebounder. Amare's face-up and shooting game was a few levels above his though.

...but yes, Blake with Amare's scoring game is actually a pretty insane player. That's Amare with better court awareness, passing ability, defense, rebounding and back to the basket game. Of course Amare did have the length going for him, so Amare as a better defender is a bigger deal because he was also a very good shot blocker and could therefore play an anchor role on defense if he had a clue what was going on on that end.

[og15]

Just paraphrasing... blake said that doc didn't care if he went 0-15 as long as he had the confidence to keep taking shots. Last season I wasn't a fan of blake taking jump shots and I always wished he backed down into the post more. I have a question for you guys.

Do you guys think that Doc wants blake to expand his offence more because DeAndre has no shooting ability and he wants blake to spread the floor more or does he just want blake to be the best he can be? I'm hoping this means that Doc is going to try to transform DeAndre into a monster in the low post. He has so much athletic ability. Jordan can camp down low and blake with the ability to take a jump shot, or drive to the basket for a slam, will have more control of the offence. IMO the improvement of DJ and blake will determine the success of Reddick, Dudley and Barnes (offensively).

It's actually just a better point of attack for Blake. Facing up allows you to still attack with post type moves, but then against bigger guys you can hit jumpshots and straight line drive past them and make the opposition adjust. Facing up at the elbow will give him better floor vision and allow him to see more passing oppurtunities and see the defense better (less turnovers).

From what they are saying, it seems to be based on how Doc and Gentry want to run the offense, similar to some things Phoenix did. The face-up and jump shooting isn't in order to take away his post-game, it is to compliment it and the team. He was taking jumpshots last season, and as a rookie, just wasn't making them too accurately. What they seem to be attempting to do is pick the spots where he's taking jumpshots from (elbow, instead of long 20 footers, etc), and get him more accurate from those spots.

10-11: 4.6 attempts from 10-23 (3.1, 16-23, 34% FG)
11-12: 4.6 attempts from 10-23 (3.9, 16-23, 37% FG)
12-13: 4.3 attempts from 10-23 (3.4, 16-23, 34% FG)

He played less minutes last season, per 36:
4.4 (27.4% of attempts)
4.6 (29.7% of attempts)
4.8 (32.1% of attempts)

So his jumpshot attempts have increased, but from his rookie year to last season, it's a 0.4/game increase, less than 1 shot every two games, 33 more jumpshots over an 82 game season. But we have to look at percentage of attempts, and he's shooting jumpshots 5% more than as a rookie. Huge difference? No, but still a bit, especially adding that he's drawing about 2 fewer FT's/36, so maybe one more attempt a game at the rim where he's fouled. So it's a bit more than a 5% increase in terms of being at the rim vs outside.

Slower pace compared to rookie year is part of that, so that has to be accounted for as more transition oppurtunities will get him a few more oppurtunities at the rim over the season, maybe one more every two games. In the end he hasn't drastically changed his game, he just needs to make these jumpshots that he is taking.

The 0-15 thing is just about confidence and aggressiveness. Every shot is a new shot, the old shot is over with, forget what happened, make or miss, its aboutmthis current shot. You have to have that mentality as a shooter, if you're open in your range, you need to shoot it and not hesitate.

[Quake Griffin]

more elbow jumpers and pick n rolls/ pin downs from the corner that lead to dunks from the baseline or jumpers from the short corner.

i want griffin working on PFs from 15-18 feet out. driving past them to the rim and using his pivots, spins and hooks once he has them moving laterally trying to guard him. I don't like him trying to back down the taller guys. it's to their advantage when he does that.

[TheNewEra]

Should be an amazing year for Blake back to year one dominance

[mttwlsn16]

30/15/10 for Blake this season