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For the last three years, Thate has been the Clippers’ shooting coach, but really, he’s been Griffin’s shadow, working with him before every practice and every game. When Griffin is sweating his way through summer workouts, Thate is there too, usually in a black T-shirt and black sweats, laser-focused on every one of Griffin’s movements.

Drifting a little to the left? That’s wrong. Fading away from the basket? Nope, can’t do that. Hanging in the air a fraction too long? Try again.

The process, at times, can be torture.

When Griffin and Thate started working together on a full-time basis, they stripped Griffin’s shot down as if it was a stolen car. “It was terrible. Everything felt terrible,” he said. “I felt like I didn’t know how to shoot. He breaks it down to so many pieces. It was extreme frustration.

“ … It was like starting from scratch. It was very frustrating. He would say, ‘Do this, do this, do this and do this,’ and I’d say, ‘But, I still have to make shots now.’

“It was a struggle.”

[Jason] Kidd credited Thate for the 1,988 3-point field goals he made in his career – the fifth-most in NBA history.

“He’s pure,” Kidd said. “There’s nothing hidden. There’s nothing that he’s trying to get from you other than seeing the ball go in, to see the smile you get becoming consistent with shooting the ball.”

Mike Miller, another of Thate’s former pupils, called his former coach “the best in the business,” largely because of the bonds he forms with the people he’s working with.

“That’s being a good coach, relating to people,” Miller said. “A lot of people have knowledge to share, to help, but relating to a guy is the most important thing.”

Dan Woike, OC Register