“Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” Unless, that is, they’re sitting in your blind spot.
That’s where Blake Griffin has been stuck for years- pretty much right up to today—while the greater basketball world has been focusing on LeBron James’s headband, Derrick Rose’s play on one day’s rest, or John Wall’s fractured hand.
But the thing is Griffin’s not only living up to the play of the those former No. 1 picks—he’s separating himself from the pack, inching closer to living up to the championship expectations that come with the commissioner announcing your name first at the draft.
In the last 30 years only James, Kevin Garnett, Charles Barkley and Larry Bird have done what we just witnessed Griffin do. That is, average at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in a first-round series. When you consider what he did on the defensive end with 1.4 blocks and 1.4 steals, Barkley is the only member of that group that has matched Blake’s output.
Griffin has put up 2014–15 playoff-best numbers in almost every advanced statistical category, including offensive-rebound percentage, defensive-rebound percentage, assist percentage, win shares and win shares per 48 minutes.
And this playoff run is hardly his first foray into playing more of a complete game. He averaged 21.9 points per game on 50-percent shooting while grabbing 7.6 rebounds in the regular season, numbers that would normally put you in the thick of the MVP race, but Griffin garnered only three votes. Part of that is probably because he missed 15 games due to a staph infection in his left elbow, yet part of it is because he’s still viewed as a one-trick pony (who knew dunking over a Kia would continue to define him all these years later?) and isn’t taken seriously.
Sure, Griffin’s dunks deserve all the praise they get. But his 21 points a night this year didn’t come on above-the-rim forays alone yet you’d have no clue as those plays drive traffic on Instagram and Vine. It’s his newfound ability as a point forward, running the Clippers offence through traffic in the high post, that deserves likes and mentions. Chris Paul, JJ Redick, Matt Barnes, DeAndre Jordan, Jamal Crawford and Austin Rivers all have better FG percentages on attempts from passes from Griffin than they do from anyone else on the team.
Griffin is seen as the antithesis to Tim Duncan, the “Big Fundamental,” but they are gradually becoming one in the same. Griffin’s low-post game is filled with counters based on the threat that he can hit twine from 18 feet. Plus, despite the risk of foul trouble, he’s taking the challenge of guarding the opposing team’s best big. The only criticism of his makeup is that he constantly whines to referees. But that still sounds like Tim Duncan to me.
“Griffin is always asking what the great players are doing. He’s asking me about Kobe. He’s asking about Duncan. He wants to get better,” says Ramona Shelboure, who covers the L.A. basketball scene for ESPN.
Griffin reached out to Duncan last summer to find out what the secret to his success was. What Duncan offered was a lesson on leadership by example, at the time having no idea that Griffin’s pilgrimage for the future Hall of Famer’s advice would lead him right past the Spurs in the first round of the 2015 playoffs.
Yet Duncan has five rings. Griffin has yet to win five post-season series. Griffin bashers lambast him on the fact that under his reign the Clippers have yet to make the conference finals and they expect more from a No. 1–overall pick. This premise is flawed for two reasons. First, the Clippers have never been good despite a preponderance of lottery picks at their disposal. Michael Olowokandi, anyone? Second, who among the first-overall picks of the last 10 years has transformed a franchise into a title winner?
Lost in the yearly tanking sweepstakes to land the “next big thing” is the fact that more often than not that return on investment hasn’t been as high as you’d expect.
Duncan is the most recent first-overall pick to win a championship with the club that drafted him. Even LeBron James can’t say he did that. The King had to go to Miami and team up with two other top-five picks in his draft class to do it. And if James wins during his second tour of duty in Cleveland it will be alongside 2011 first-overall pick Kyrie Irving—a guy who couldn’t drag his teams to the playoffs in the first three years of his career, let alone a title. So why is it fair to assume that Blake alone can drag his team to one?
When you compare him to the first-overall big men in his era, he most certainly is giving you bang for your buck. Due to poor play and injury, respectively, Andrea Bargnani and Greg Oden simply didn’t work out. Anthony Bennett is too young yet for fair comparisons, but—all due respect—doesn’t look to have Griffin’s upside.
Dwight Howard would probably be the closest first-overall big man comp, and he actually carried an otherwise mediocre Magic team to the finals in 2009. But 11 years into his career Howard still has a flawed and limited offensive game, and Griffin is showing in his second-round series against Howard’s Houston Rockets that the comparison between the two is just in bicep size and dunk-contest memories. Griffin has actually done everything to augment his success that Howard hasn’t yet been able to, despite a five-year head start.
This current Clippers run may not end in a championship, but that will have more to do with Doc Rivers the GM giving Doc Rivers the coach a thin bench than anything Griffin fails to bring this team. Instead of dissecting everything Griffin doesn’t do or reinforcing the stereotypes about what he does do (dunk) let’s applaud him for what nobody else has been able to do—transform one of sports worst franchises into a title contender. Griffin and the Clippers are sneaking up on the competition.
And much closer than they appear.