madmaxmedia wrote:I think the only fair way to compare the 2 is with both of them after their fourth seasons, since Blake is not nearly in his prime. And in that comparison I choose Blake Griffin every single day of the week. Blake is more productive statistically when comparing both after 4 seasons, and has a higher ceiling than Elton Brand.
That's not to say Brand doesn't have his strengths as well, and he had a monster season in 05-06.
Maybe the 'after 4 years' comparison is a little to easy. But Brand is 05-06 was at his peak, Blake Griffin right now is like 80% awesomeness, and 20% where you still see holes in his game, but they're getting smaller every year. When he calmly knocks down multiple 18-footers you can see the other teams' players start to deflate, like "Really? Now you're gonna do that to us too???"
Well the question was prime Brand vs Blake, so it wasn't a "fair" question, I think the OP might just have been curious as to whether Blake had reached that level yet.
SJSF wrote:Brand is and was a man. Blake is soft. Brand wound bully blake all over the court.
Brand in Philly wasn't really bullying Blake all over the court. Why do some people seem to think that comparisons require tearing down one player in the comparison? So weird, where does this come from?
NBAWestFan wrote:I like Blake. Brand was a Superior Rebounder because he used his positioning and body.
Brand was not a leaper but a small sized power forward with a decent mid range shot
but he was not always commanding the ball.
Blake has alot more athleticism and potential. Once Blake gets his shot down
he will be hard to stop. He has had 40 point games and I don't think Brand had very
few 40 point games if any.
Blake is just got more upside.
Honestly they aren't that far off in rebounding, but Blake's playoff rebounding has been mediocre. Brand was not a small PF, actually it is the opposite, Blake is the undersized PF. I just touched on this, but there's a wrong focus on head height that tricks people. Blake is 6'10 with an 8'9 standing reach, Brand is 6'9 with a 9'2 standing reach. Brand came in at about 260, a little overweight, Blake at 250 and muscular, Brand dropped to about 250 in the 05-06 season, so not undersized in terms of weight either. I think Brand got listed at 6'8 here and there, but 6'8.25" without shoes is 6'9 with shoes, not 6'8 with shoes. Without shoes, Blake was measured at 6'8.5, 0.25 inches taller than Brand, so he's not magically two inches taller when they wear shoes. If we give them both 1 inch in shoes, it should be 6'9.25 and 6'9.5.
Without jumping, Brand is already playing 5 inches taller, that's a huge deal. Who is undersized there? Brand was strong as an ox himself and was mobile and a good leaper also, though not a leaper like Blake of course. Brand's wingspan (7'5.5) and standing reach fall into the range of NBA centers. Blake's actually falls into the range of NBA SF's and the low and of of PF's.
Check this, DJ has a 7'6 wingspan and 9'5.5" standing reach. There's a bigger difference between Blake and Brand than DJ and Blake when it comes to reach. If you took away height perceptions, Brand is actually physically very capable of playing C, which is why in his older age he's played as a solid backup C for teams and despite being perceived as undersized, the on court performance doesn't support the idea.
If you don't believe Brand actually was as long as C's, here's current C's:
Dwight Howard: 9'3.5"
Giorgiu Dieng: 9'3.5
Bismack Biyombo: 9'3.4
Byron Mullens: 9'3
Chris Kaman: 9'2.5
Andrew Bogut: 9'2.5
Emeka Okafor: 9'2.5
Al Jefferson: 9'2
Tyson Chandler: 9'2
Marcin Gortat: 9'2
That's why Brand wasn't getting blocked all over the place like actual undersized PF's or a strategy of put a bigger guy didn't mean much against him since he could actually shoot and make his moes inside over them still.
Well where does Blake fall? Let's consider this. These SF's have a standing reach 8'11 or higher:
James Jones, Trevor Ariza, Rudy Gay, Paul George, that's 2-2.5 inches on Blake reach wise.
Every PF you can think of that you consider undersized probably has like 2 inches of reach on Blake.
Reggie Evans: 8'11.5
Anthony Tolliver: 8'11.5
Michael Sweetney: 8'11.5
Micheal Beasley: 8'11
Jason Maxiell: 8'11
Darell Arthur: 8'11
Patrick Patterson: 8'11
Terrence Jones: 8'11
David Lee: 8'10.5
Ronny Turiaf: 8'10.5
Brandon Bass: 8'10.5
Kris Himphries: 8'10.5
Ryan Gomes: 8'10.5
Josh Smith: 8'10.5
DeJuan Blair: 8'10.5
Lebron James: 8'10.25
Thaddeus Young: 8'10
Kevin Love: 8'10
Martell Webster: 8'10
Michael Dinleavy: 8'10
Tyler Hansbrough: 8'10
Wesley Johnson: 8'10
Trevor Booker: 8'10
Kawhi Leonard: 8'10
Kyle Singler: 8'10
Thomas Robinson: 8'10
Paul Millsap: 8'9.5
Andre Iguodala: 8'9.5
Shaun Livingston: 8'9.5
Carmelo Anthony: 8'9.5
Shaun Livignsron: 8'9.5
Matt Bonner, Josh Howard, Rasual Butler, James Johnson, Sam Young, Jared Singler, Otto Porter: 8'9.5
Adam Morrison, Sean May, Josh Childress, Shane Batier, Bobby Simmons, DeMarre Carroll, Xavier Henry, Joe Johnson, Draymonf Green, Quincy Miller:8'9
Blake Griffin: 8'9
Now, I'm not saying standing reach is the be all end all, but it matters, and guys who don't have other abilities to overcome their deficiencies there struggle in the NBA and people are confused why. This is one reason Cody Zeller should have been a player teams are weary of, he has the length of the lower end of PF's, not a C length wise. Some guys can make up for it, but that isn't the norm.
So the next time someone wonders why it seems so difficult for Blake to contest a big like a LaMarcus Aldridge's shot or contest in post defense, let them consider that half the SF's in the league reach higher than Blake while just standing and that Blake is at the bare minimum low end for PF's when it comes to reach, he's about 3 inches below most. 3 inches is the difference between 6'5 and 6'8, 6'2 and 6'5, 6'8 and 6'11. Length wise, Blake is like a 6'8 guy who weighs a good amount, is really strong and can jump really high (of course discounting his skills, just purely physically). Which is also why he deserves a lot of props, more so than people realize.
