Blake Griffin

Blake Griffin is a Beast

Blake Griffin is a beast, no ifs ands or buts about it. The second year rookie is an athletic freak with once in a decade skills and abilities. Interestingly enough, if you have to pick one player in the NBA who most matches up with him athletic wise, you may have to pick Lebron James. Lebron vs. Blake pretty much comes down to a difference in positions because size wise they are about the same.

Blake Griffin is 6'9'' 250lbs. Lebron James is 6'8'' 250lbs. Although Blake Griffin has great dexterity, agility, and dribbling ability, there's no doubt he plays like a power forward and not a guard. Lebron James on the other hand plays like a guard but has the ability to play with the big bodies down low. However, he does not have Blake Griffin's back to the basket game.

After you get done watching the Clippers play, you can only shake your head and think "Blake Griffin is a Beast". The amazing thing is how good Blake Griffin is so early in his career. He's already a 22 and 12 guy in his first season (injury his true rookie year). There's really no reason to think Griffin can't average 28 and 14 during his prime. Talk about gaudy numbers!

What's great for NBA fans and especially Clippers fans is The Freak of Beast (Blake Griffin nickname?) will entertain us all while efficiently putting up huge stats.

Blake Griffin Scouting Report

Blake Griffin is best described as a combination of a young Karl Malone and a young Charles Barkley. While the Clippers would like to see Blake Griffin improve as a shooter - and he does have a ways to go - he is still decent at this point in his career and has nice touch.

While Blake Griffin doesn't possess all of Karl Malone's tree trunk strength and he isn't near the jump shooter Malone rounded himself into, he is a rebounding machine and has been known to hit the gym pretty hard. When you watch him, you know he walks around lighter, closer to when the Mailman was in his younger days.

You can definitely see the Chuckster's explosive leaping ability and athleticism in Blake Griffin. Although Charles Barkley constantly defers to Blake Griffin's abilities and explosiveness on TNT's Inside the NBA, Barkley may be selling himself short. For those that weren't watching when Charles Barkley was in the better half of his career, go back in time and look on YouTube for some of Charles Barkley's old highlights. You might jump out of your seat when you see the young Round Mound of Rebound.

Blake Griffin has a ways to go before his all around game gets to the caliber these legends were at during their prime but there's no denying his physical prowess and arsenal of tools will remind you of Karl Malone and Charles Barkley. Again, this is really good news for Clippers fans.

Despite the Superman superlatives, the one low point of Griffin's rookie campaign is his free throw percentage hovering around 60%. Most NBA watchers have become accustomed to accepting 60% free throw percentage but that doesn't mean they should. Griffin's free throw percentage figure needs to go up to 70% within 2 years and I think it will. Other than free throws, the Clippers have to be ecstatic about their elite superstar. Griffin already belongs in the top 10 players in the league and he'll only continue to go up. Here's my top 10 players in the NBA right now:

1. Kobe Bryant
   
2. Lebron James
   
3. Dwyane Wade
4. Derrick Rose
5. Kevin Durant
6. Carmelo Anthony
7. Blake Griffin
8. Dwight Howard
9. Amare Stoudemire
10. Dirk Nowitzki

That's right, I currently have Blake Griffin as the 7th best player in the NBA - and he's only a rookie! Facts are facts though and the numbers don't lie. Griffin is currently averaging 22.8 ppg on .511 fg% with 12.6 rpg (rebounds) and 3.6 assists per game in only 37.7 minutes. That's very high efficiency! He's also surprisingly shot 7-13 from three point land.

All-in-all, Blake Griffin is a Beast and one tough cover. His weakest areas are jump shooting and going to his left without the spin move. If you're guarding Griffin and want to have success against him, you have to get him shooting from the outside and dribbling multiple times to his left hand.

Curiously enough, Griffin has developed a nice angle bank shot ala legendary Tim Duncan. Given his jumper is nowhere near as fluid as Duncan, but he has hit the angle J at a nice rate and it continues to be a weapon for him going forward as opponents sag off him to prevent his quick first step, blow by.

The aspects of Blake Griffin's game I'm most impressed by are 1) his agility and coordination and 2) his elite explosiveness. Rarely do 6'9'' guys have the body control that Blake Griffin does. Blake has already shown that he can do a complete 360 degree layup and retain full control of his body and finish with a soft touch.

Most players - specially post players - aren't able to even complete a 360 degree jump, let alone have enough body control to finish off the move with a made layup.

I think what make's Blake Griffin such a special basketball player is his combination of being nimble and light on his feet with his raw power and explosiveness that he exhibits when he wants to. Other NBA players simply can't match that and that's why I think Blake Griffin's career is going to be loaded with rebounds, easy buckets (made to look easy by BG), and highlight reel dunks over taller opponents.

Blake Griffin Dunks

Blake Griffin has an array of dunks he likes to pull out on opponents who dare cross in his path or unfortunately get in his way. The windmill dunk or windmill jam may be his patented go to dunk as he commonly likes to unleash it when he's anywhere within the zip code of the rim.

Another favorite twist to Blake Griffin dunks are the whirling dervish 360 spins. He had a classic dunk over Danilo Gallanari of the New York Knicks when he got the ball in the open court, dribbled to the right of the Knicks' star and then pivoted once to the left and finished with a tomahawk jam over the foreigner.

A Blake Griffin dunk fan favorite is in a different sort of category. The Clippers phenom always draws a lot of ewws and awws when he skies so high that his head is level with the rim - Literally! If you haven't seen all of Blake Griffin's highlight dunks you might not believe this but the Oklahoma Sooners alum can absolutely fly.

In one game, Blake Griffin got up so high for a dunk, he actually hit his head on the backboard. Keep in mind the backboard is only a few inches below rim level and Blake Griffin easily hit his head on the backboard. You can see this Oklahoma Sooner Blake Griffin dunk video below.

Blake Griffin Personality

One thing you have to like about the Clippers power forward is his cool demeanor and good natured personality. He's confident but not arrogant like Lebron James. He's light-hearted and doesn't have the mopey, cry baby antics of Carmelo Anthony. At the same time, you can tell he's strong mentally unlike Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard who has consistently gotten befuddled and frustrated throughout his career.

Blake Griffin definitely walks with a swagger but it's not like it isn't deserved with the amount of game he's got. What you've got to love is despite everyone telling him how great he is (eh hem), he's still willing to poke fun at himself and doesn't go crying on Twitter every time he gets criticized.

How Good Can Blake Griffin Be?

Blake Griffin has a high ceiling potential because of his willingness to learn and take criticism along with his natural gifts and flare for the game. I think Griffin is easily on the path to becoming a Hall of Famer and will pile up many eye popping stats and highlights by the time he decides to hang up his sneakers. The question is will Blake Griffin win championships?

Will Blake Griffin Win a Championship?

Championship trophies are something I'm more hesitant about handing to Griffin. While there's no doubt he's a superstar level NBA player with a myriad of individual accolades on the horizon, winning the Larry O'Brien trophy is very much in doubt.

There are several factors at play when it comes to Blake Griffin and winning NBA titles. First, the NBA has transitioned into even more of a guard's game. Second, Blake Griffin is on the Clippers and despite his elite level of play, they're still a losing team at 20-33 (.377) as of the date this Blake Griffin article was written. Third, Blake Griffin may leave the Clippers midway through his career which would probably set his championship aspirations back while he becomes acclimated with his new time. Fourth, we've yet to see how Blake Griffin responds in the NBA to real games - when the season is on the line.

If I had to bet on whether Blake Griffin will win a championship as the superstar player on a team, I would say no. It's a really tough call at this point but I see him more as an amazing All-Star player who will entertain everyone for years to come but not advance deep into the playoffs.

As for the NBA becoming more of a guards game now with all the talent on the perimeter, watch to see if David Stern doesn't somehow tweak the way the game is called or possibly even change some rules to benefit his budding Clipper cash cow.

With regards to playing for the Clippers, I hope Blake stays with them for his entire career. It would be really cool to see someone come on to a losing team and have the fortitude to make them better and stick with that team. We all saw how Lebron James folded when the going got tough in Cleveland and reneged on his promise to deliver a championship. For Blake Griffin to do the opposite and become the anti-Lebron would be really cool.

If Blake Griffin can deliver a championship to the LA Clippers as the man, that would be off the charts cool. To single handedly (just about) turn around the long time laughing stock of the NBA would be an amazing feat - one I'm not sure he can do but hope he does.

To address the last point of Blake Griffin winning a championship, he doesn't have the look of a choke artist one bit. I don't think Blake Griffin would back down from a pinnacle moment in a playoff game the way Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter have done so many times in their careers. I see Blake embracing the moment and rolling out even larger stats (think 30 and 15) when all the bacon is on the line in the playoffs.

Blake Griffin Articles

Read more Blake Griffin articles on Blake Griffin Dunk ratings, Blake Griffin Ethnicity, and Blake Griffin Workout.

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