Has Blake Already Lost Some of His Athleticism?

kylem4711 · Post #1 » by **kylem4711** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 8:34 pm

I know he came into the season with a couple injuries, but if nothing else, it looks like he can't jump as high anymore.

He is picking his spots when he needs to explode better, but when he does "unleash", it doesnt seem like he gets as high as he did last year.

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this or if it is just me.

scratch21 · Post #2 » by **scratch21** » Thu Dec 25, 2014 9:05 pm

i think he has a little and hes saving his body so he doesnt explode as much so he can have a longer career

mike3 · Post #3 » by **mike3** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 2:52 am

The thought of this just saddens me

KyletheDingbat · Post #4 » by **KyletheDingbat** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 8:03 am

I started a thread on this a while back, and while I agree that he's lost a little (actually like a foot) of his vertical, I hope it's temporary and maybe just the result of a minor injury. If he stays at this level athletically that would be a tragedy. He'd be a middle of the road level NBA athlete.

Quake Griffin · Post #5 » by **Quake Griffin** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 8:50 am

lol, i don't think he's lost a foot off his vertical.

LACtdom · Post #6 » by **LACtdom** » Fri Dec 26, 2014 8:56 am

Sometimes he just throws the ball at the rim and hopes for a foul instead of trying to muscle his way to a basket.

MartinToVaught · Post #7 » by **MartinToVaught** » Sun Dec 28, 2014 12:41 am

It's not just his athleticism declining. His game is declining too.

The reality is that he's becoming Josh Smith 2.0. His shot selection is terrible now. He is NOT a significantly improved jump shooter, he just chucks more long twos, which are the least efficient shot in basketball. He's only making 38% of his shots from midrange, which is a problem when the vast majority of his shots are now coming from there. That isn't good. He's scared to play in the paint and he's especially scared of physical defenders like ZBo and Draymond Green. He no longer looks like an MVP candidate or a #1 pick. I'm really starting to wonder if his career to date was the product of steroids and he's off them now.

KyletheDingbat · Post #8 » by **KyletheDingbat** » Sun Dec 28, 2014 4:56 am

MartinToVaught wrote:It's not just his athleticism declining. His game is declining too.

The reality is that he's becoming Josh Smith 2.0. His shot selection is terrible now. He is NOT a significantly improved jump shooter, he just chucks more long twos, which are the least efficient shot in basketball. He's only making 38% of his shots from midrange, which is a problem when the vast majority of his shots are now coming from there. That isn't good. He's scared to play in the paint and he's especially scared of physical defenders like ZBo and Draymond Green. He no longer looks like an MVP candidate or a #1 pick. I'm really starting to wonder if his career to date was the product of steroids and he's off them now.

And I thought I was hard on Blake. You're becoming the doomsday poster here lol, not that I can really disagree with a lot of what you're saying. The steroid thing actually made me sad, I hope it's not true. But I have faith he'll go the other direction and improve; he's too smart to become Smith 2.0.

LACtdom · Post #9 » by **LACtdom** » Sun Dec 28, 2014 5:11 am

I don't consider Blake a top 5 PF let alone an MVP candidate. He is very talented but is an inefficient scorer and besides that crazy 3 he made, he can't 'get' a basket when the game is on the line. He is still a great player though, just not as good as we were hoping. Old Blake was a lot more effective in the paint.

Quake Griffin · Post #10 » by **Quake Griffin** » Sun Dec 28, 2014 5:54 am

KyletheDingbat wrote:
MartinToVaught wrote:It's not just his athleticism declining. His game is declining too.

The reality is that he's becoming Josh Smith 2.0. His shot selection is terrible now. He is NOT a significantly improved jump shooter, he just chucks more long twos, which are the least efficient shot in basketball. He's only making 38% of his shots from midrange, which is a problem when the vast majority of his shots are now coming from there. That isn't good. He's scared to play in the paint and he's especially scared of physical defenders like ZBo and Draymond Green. He no longer looks like an MVP candidate or a #1 pick. I'm really starting to wonder if his career to date was the product of steroids and he's off them now.

And I thought I was hard on Blake. You're becoming the doomsday poster here lol, not that I can really disagree with a lot of what you're saying. The steroid thing actually made me sad, I hope it's not true. But I have faith he'll go the other direction and improve; he's too smart to become Smith 2.0.

MartinToVaught · Post #11 » by **MartinToVaught** » Sun Dec 28, 2014 6:36 am

KyletheDingbat wrote:
MartinToVaught wrote:It's not just his athleticism declining. His game is declining too.

The reality is that he's becoming Josh Smith 2.0. His shot selection is terrible now. He is NOT a significantly improved jump shooter, he just chucks more long twos, which are the least efficient shot in basketball. He's only making 38% of his shots from midrange, which is a problem when the vast majority of his shots are now coming from there. That isn't good. He's scared to play in the paint and he's especially scared of physical defenders like ZBo and Draymond Green. He no longer looks like an MVP candidate or a #1 pick. I'm really starting to wonder if his career to date was the product of steroids and he's off them now.

And I thought I was hard on Blake. You're becoming the doomsday poster here lol, not that I can really disagree with a lot of what you're saying. The steroid thing actually made me sad, I hope it's not true. But I have faith he'll go the other direction and improve; he's too smart to become Smith 2.0.

I'm not even trying to be a "doomsday poster." Blake is my favorite player on the team, I'm just at a loss to explain the sudden and sharp decline in his game. He went from being a beast with a nonstop motor who just needed some refined skills in his rookie year to being a soft perimeter chucker who never shows up against good teams now. It makes no sense.

KyletheDingbat · Post #12 » by **KyletheDingbat** » Sun Dec 28, 2014 7:09 am

MartinToVaught wrote:I'm not even trying to be a "doomsday poster." Blake is my favorite player on the team, I'm just at a loss to explain the sudden and sharp decline in his game. He went from being a beast with a nonstop motor who just needed some refined skills in his rookie year to being a soft perimeter chucker who never shows up against good teams now. It makes no sense.

Rookie Blake is still my favorite Blake. Last year's was probably better but rookie Blake was an animal. I gotta admit I'm disappointed in the progression too. I can't stand how he cries all game. It may be that as a rookie he just took the league by storm but then everyone adjusted to him so he couldn't do the same stuff anymore. Now he has to change his game and there are growing pains. He's still productive though.

JonBones · Post #13 » by **JonBones** » Sun Dec 28, 2014 8:42 am

I think he's just being picky on some spots to explode now, that dunk he had in Phoenix where he dunked right off the catch seemed like old blake to me. I do agree his motor seems to have slown down, and thats probably more due to his mental than anything else

mike3 · Post #14 » by **mike3** » Mon Dec 29, 2014 12:03 am

JonBones wrote:I think he's just being picky on some spots to explode now, that dunk he had in Phoenix where he dunked right off the catch seemed like old blake to me. I do agree his motor seems to have slown down, and thats probably more due to his mental than anything else

I tend to agree mostly with this. I'd find it hard to believe than in one season his athleticism could just decrease so majorly. I think he's just figuring out how to expand his game, and doing so, he's turned into someone who is mainly shooting J's (even though he recognizes that) and he's barely using his explosiveness that we're used too. Hopefully it's just a mental fade thing because he's not playing the way he should, he's complaining about everything and constantly looking for fouls. He needs to just go out there and play ball... IF he strings it all together he's going to be unstoppable, lets not forget that.

Neddy · Post #15 » by **Neddy** » Mon Dec 29, 2014 2:03 am

doesn't any one of you guys think it may have to do with that broken back injury he suffered late last season? a small fracture on your vertebrae due to putting too much pressure on it from jumping so high and landing so violently?

If my doc told me i injured myself by trying something too hard, and well knowing my livelihood depended on the longevity of my career, I would slow the **** down too.

mike3 · Post #16 » by **mike3** » Mon Dec 29, 2014 6:27 am

Neddy wrote:doesn't any one of you guys think it may have to do with that broken back injury he suffered late last season? a small fracture on your vertebrae due to putting too much pressure on it from jumping so high and landing so violently?

If my doc told me i injured myself by trying something too hard, and well knowing my livelihood depended on the longevity of my career, I would slow the **** down too.

This is a good point.

reignfire · Post #17 » by **reignfire** » Mon Dec 29, 2014 10:13 am

Last year he was a beast on the block. You could give him the ball and let him go to work.

Not this year.

LACtdom · Post #18 » by **LACtdom** » Mon Dec 29, 2014 11:18 am

mike3 wrote:
Neddy wrote:doesn't any one of you guys think it may have to do with that broken back injury he suffered late last season? a small fracture on your vertebrae due to putting too much pressure on it from jumping so high and landing so violently?

If my doc told me i injured myself by trying something too hard, and well knowing my livelihood depended on the longevity of my career, I would slow the **** down too.

This is a good point.

Agreed! I'd rather have 'wimpy' Blake than an injured Blake. We wouldn't get very far without him.

mike3 · Post #19 » by **mike3** » Mon Dec 29, 2014 11:47 am

I think all in all we as fans just want an answer as to why he looks pretty poor this season (for his standards). We can debate all we want but I wish Clippers would release a statement if he was battling an injury or whatever it may be.

KyletheDingbat · Post #20 » by **KyletheDingbat** » Tue Dec 30, 2014 6:28 am

Today he went up for a block, got a clean jump, and was called for a tech because he grabbed the NET in assistance. On the replay you could see he barely got his wrist above the rim, fully extended. He also lost a jump ball to a guard, and on the replay you could see the guard got his hand up at least as high. He had one dunk in the lane, but basically finger-tipped it in. The one moment of optimism came when he tried to dunk on Kanter; he got up pretty high on this one but Kanter's upward momentum gave Blake an extra few inches of lift. I still think he's lost at least 8 inches, but maybe a foot, on his vert.