Q&A: Blake Griffin On Offseason Training, Clippers

[mkwest]

Basketball Insiders: You’ve added different things to your game each summer. Where are you working out this offseason and what aspects of your game are you working on?

Blake Griffin: “I did a lot of my offseason stuff here in L.A. I like to get out of the training facility and I work out with my trainer, doing strength and conditioning stuff in El Segundo in his gym. I’ll use just random gyms, like I use this high school gym down in Manhattan Beach sometimes. Then, I kind of bounced around a bit. I did some workouts in New York because I had to be there for a little bit so I worked out there. As far as what we worked on, a lot of face up, off the post, off the elbow, a lot of short roll stuff, getting into the lane, floaters – just because we get so much of that with our spacing of the court and how many pick and rolls we run with CP. [I worked on] a lot of stuff actually off the dribble too, just like one dribble pull-ups and things like that. A lot of post-ups too. This summer, I really did a whole lot and kind of mixed it up. Like last summer, I did so much shooting – a lot of catch and shooting, a lot of pick and pop – and I still did that this summer a lot, but I just tried to kind of focus on literally everything this summer.”

Basketball Insiders: As you mentioned, you spent a lot of time in the gym working on your jump shot last year and it translated to success during the season. Now, after another offseason of work, where is your confidence level with your jump shot?

Blake Griffin: “Every summer and every year, it really gets better and better. I feel a lot more confident going into this season, definitely more so than last season. Each year and each offseason, I try to kind of reflect on the last season and see what I did – what I maybe did too much of, what I didn’t do enough of – and I think last year sometimes I settled [for jump shots] a bit too much. This year, I’m really trying to perfect that balance of pick and pops versus putting it on the floor and making plays, so that’s kind of why I focused on everything this summer. Just being able to use the spacing of our floor, having J.J. [Redick] out there spacing the floor and the same thing with CP when he gets doubled team, [I] just really wanted to being able to have an array of shots and not just focus on pick and pops and catch and shoots.”

Basketball Insiders: You guys were very active this summer, adding players like Paul Pierce, Lance Stephenson, Josh Smith and others. What are your overall thoughts on the offseason additions?

Blake Griffin: “I’m very excited, man. Obviously with the whole DJ (DeAndre Jordan) thing – that was a priority bringing him back and everybody kind of knows about that – that kind of almost overshadowed all the other things we did. Adding Josh Smith to our bench is huge, adding Lance Stephenson, adding Paul Pierce with all of his his experience, I thought we did a really good job this summer of just putting a plan together of guys that we wanted and positions that we wanted and then going out and actually getting it done. I feel really good about our bench, but obviously, like every team, we have to put it together. But I’m excited, especially since the past of couple weeks we’ve started having more guys in [L.A.] and our team is starting to take a little shape just through our workouts and playing pick-up. I think this could be a special season for us.”

Alex Kennedy, Basketball Insiders

[Captain Ballmer]

When that meltdown happened at last year's playoffs series aganist Rockets, i wished that Blake can have some post-up games from his pocket to save the day. Just like the moves we saw before in Spurs series from Duncan in his 39 years old. This kind of moves could easily transform to the basket or get you to the line. That's something we need for beyond.

Although, Blake was played like LBJ, Durant or 2006/Wadeish clearly there is one more step to go for.

That video below will explain what i am trying to point.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt-ykC6JQOM[/youtube]

[Ranma]

It's not surprising to hear Blake Griffin be inspired by a SEAL Team 6 member since he employs their training methods in his offseason workouts for as long as I can remember. I'm glad to hear such inspiration is having him focused on being a more vocal leader and aspiring to be a better defender and possibly even the best player in the league.

However, if you read the entire piece (and not excerpted below), it seems contradictory for him to say on one hand about maybe vying for the MVP award and, on the other hand, discuss the topic about pacing himself during the regular season. Plus, while he acknowledged that he should do a better job of rebounding, he still pointed to the excuse of DJ grabbing so many boards even as the team is ranked in the lower half in that particular category. Even still, at least there is a recognition and desire for an increased efficiency in his game, which I hope translates to him not pushing to handle the ball so much, which was implied in the article.

J.A. Adande, ESPN (10/8/15)

Griffin was locked in as the SEAL talked of sacrifice, including spending more than 250 days a year away from his family. He talked about doing it all for maybe $60,000 a year, which prompted Griffin to recall the absurdity of Latrell Sprewell's "I've got my family to feed" explanation for turning down a $27 million contract extension.

"All we've got to do is play basketball," Griffin said.
...

"Speaking up and saying things when I see them, not letting it slide," Griffin said. "Not thinking, 'Oh, it's October.' Or, 'That's OK for now.' I've started to cut out all that.
...

Griffin has had numerous discussions with Clippers assistant coach Lawrence Frank about becoming an elite defender. If Griffin is going to expend the energy necessary to do that, it will require conservation elsewhere. That probably means even fewer drives for spectacular slams -- he dunked far less in 2014-15 (78) than he did the year before (176) -- and perhaps bringing the ball upcourt less often. Maybe his rebounding numbers will stay down in single digits, as well. He went from 36 games with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in 2013-14 to only nine such games last season, when his rebounding average dropped to a career-low 7.6 per game.

Blake Griffin Wants to Take his Defense -- and the Clippers -- to Another Level

[QRich3]

Awesome, I'm all for less eye-catching statlines and less vicious dunks and highlights in exchange for a few more wins and more consistent defense. It had to be the natural next step in his game.

Paul has played this way his whole career, Pierce is a guy who's transitioned from scoring superstar to great role player following that philosophy. If only DJ and the guys on the bench bought into that philosophy...

[Dynamix]

Not too worried about Blake's regular season numbers after seeing him get those triple doubles in the playoffs.

[og15]

I'm glad that Blake still sees the need to improve defensively and has the desire to do it. He has come a long way from what he was defensively a couple of seasons ago.

[nickhx2]

from what i can tell, he's always known he needs to be better defensively.

i think last season he showed he can be much better, but by the time the playoffs rolled around he was pretty waxed since the team had no depth. even if he wanted to be elite (i'm sure he always has wanted to) thus far he hasn't been able to play injury-free or with any gas in the tank for the past few postseasons.