Thursday, May 21, 2009

Blake Griffin to... the Clippers?

I just wanted to comment on the NBA Draft lottery drawing the other day (I guess that's what you would call it... it's basically like watching the Virginia lottery drawing, but more fun and you get to see the old & nerdy David Stern as opposed to the fat woman with the annoying voice). The team that finished with the worst record in 2009 has the highest probability of getting the first pick and each team's chances get smaller and smaller from there (teams in the playoffs have zero chance to get the first pick). So before the drawing started, the Sacramento Kings had the best chance of landing the first pick, which everybody agrees will be Oklahoma University's Blake Griffin, regardless of whether a team has needs at another position or not... he's just too special to pass up. Griffin is a massive power forward standing about 6'10" and weighing close to 260 lbs. He's a force down low and has a decent jumper that will get better with work. I think the optimal place for Blake Griffin to end up would have been the Oklahoma City Thunder considering that he went to college in OK and he grew up there as well. OK City had the third highest probability of landing the first pick.

However, it isn't going to work out that way. Much to commissioner David Stern's delight, the Los Angeles Clippers landed the first pick of the NBA draft (I say this because LA is a huge market compared to OK City and so there's more money for the NBA to make from the sale of Griffin jerseys and such). As any NBA fan will tell you, the Clippers are where players go to die. You can be one of the best young players in the league, but the Clippers will wear you out until you've got nothing left to give to anyone. Sort of like those kids that started smoking pot in sixth grade and were complete burnouts before they even got into high school. LA Junior will supply Blake Griffin with a completely incompetent head coach, much like their current stiff Mike Dunleavy, who will not help Griffin to get better. Elton Brand was an excellent player for the Clips when he was drafted out of college from Duke, but after a few seasons with LA Junior, he ended up with injury problems and an uncaring attitude that he has taken with him to Philadelphia. I'd hate to see that happen to Blake Griffin because the guy is just a monster, with potential to be the next great power forward in the mold of Karl Malone (they are very similar players). It's just a real shame he won't ever reach that potential now.

2 comments:

Dave Harris said...

Let it be known that I have started a blog. And since no one is reading it, I have come here to Pat's blog to advertise (because people read Pat's blog). I'm not really sure why I started a blog, but I did. All I do is put stuff on it that makes me laugh.

http://hammertime88.blogspot.com/

Harris

H Kent said...

Dave, let it be known that I am now following your blog. However, I cannot post comments to it from school (yet I can on Pat's blog somehow). That means that we must use Pat as a proxy.