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Blake Griffin has said he thinks the Brooklyn Nets need another great man. On his first Zoom call after his first practice since signing with the Nets, he said they could use “another guy to facilitate, kind of fill those gaps,” someone who can “relieve that pressure” on James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.
Superstars can’t win big without reliable actors, and he would know it. Just two seasons ago, as Harden shared the backcourt with Chris Paul in Houston, Durant was part of a super team in the Bay Area and Irving was part of a stacked but unstable Celtics team, Griffin did his fifth All-NBA team alongside all, carrying a huge load for a Detroit Pistons team that needed every game of their 24.5 points and 5.4 assists per game just to squeeze into the playoffs. Prior to his detour to Detroit, he spent six seasons with Chris Paul, mostly competing for the championship, but these Los Angeles Clippers teams never made it out of the second round. One can only imagine how this story might have ended if the Clippers had acquired just one more reliable 3-and-D guy, one more playmaker on the wing, or another big rim protection save. .
As shocking as it is to see Griffin wearing a Nets training jersey, it is significant that he spoke of himself as a supporting character rather than one of the stars of the show. Even in the 20 games he’s played with the Pistons this season, in which his utilization rate has dropped to 19.7% – his previous career low was 25%, in 2012-13 – Griffin averaged 59.6 touches per game. On a per minute basis, this is about as much as Durant’s averages. Joe Harris averaged 36.9 touches, most of the Nets’ non-stars. Griffin acknowledged that there would be a period of adjustment, but has said repeatedly that playing with great players makes the game easier.
From Griffin’s perspective, it’s easy to see why he joined the party. “He was asked to be in Detroit a lot,” Brooklyn coach Steve Nash said. “There was a lot of attention on him defensively, whereas with this team he won’t be asked to carry such a big load or absorb so much pressure from the defense, so I think there is a opportunity for him here to have less pressure, less responsibility, and therefore show what he can do in a bigger light. “Griffin is only shooting 36.5% from the field this season, but he has managed 44, 2% of its 3 wide openings. His new teammates will create a lot.
But did the Nets really need another big one? It looked like this when they traded starting center Jarrett Allen in the Harden case and brought in Norvel Pelle and Noah Vonleh for cups of coffee. (It’s unclear if any of them visited Gumption Coffee, the roast next door to their practice facility.) Nash, however, called Griffin a small 5 balloon, and Brooklyn already has one to Jeff Green, who turned it off. lights (45.5% on 3 catch-and-shoot, 47.4% on 3 wide open) and offering the same defensive versatility it gave the Rockets small ball last season. He also has Nicolas Claxton, the big man he selected with the No.31 pick in the 2019 draft. In defense, Claxton is a 6-foot-11 tornado, who is not afraid to move on to perimeter players and is nimble enough to stick with them.
When Claxton is on the court, the Nets can go from 1 to 5 without sacrificing size. He’s only logged 93 minutes in six games since returning from knee and shoulder injuries, but in that small sample they have outscored their opponents by 17.3 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com. . In their Nets’ 121-109 win over the Boston Celtics on Thursday, Claxton replaced Jayson Tatum off the 3-point line, got in position, challenged his sidestep 3 and forced a ball air.
Later in the game, he moved his feet with Jeff Teague …
… Jaylen Brown refused…
… And forced Tatum into a low percentage turnaround outside the restricted area. (Tatum is so talented he did it anyway.)
Claxton is not Bam Adebayo. He played a total of 280 NBA minutes and 191 G League minutes, having missed most of his rookie season with injuries. “He’s young as hell,” said Green, but the 21-year-old “asks good questions” and “his IQ is really good”. There aren’t many true centers that can do what they do defensively.
“It starts with his footwork,” Nash said. “He has great mobility with his length so he’s able to cover a variety of players. He really fits into our change defense, where he can be very active as well as obviously being able to move his feet and use his length. against faster players. and using his feet against bigger and stronger players. It gives us versatility, but it also gives us a lot of energy and activity. It gives us a profile that is a bit unique for our team with its length and activity. ”
Already, Claxton is a statistical darling. Per 36 minutes, he averages 20.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 3.1 blocks and 1.9 steals. He shoots 80% (20 for 25) at the rim, according to Cleaning The Glass, feasting on lobs and pocket passes from future Hall of Fame members.
When Claxton checks out the game, “he knows what to do,” teammate Bruce Brown said. His skills are ideal for a team that has an unprecedented amount of isolation scores, plenty of point shots, and glaring defensive gaps. Beyond that, “he’s working his ass,” Green said. Early evidence not only suggests that he’s an important part of the Nets’ future, but that he could be in their playoff rotation this year, provided he stays healthy and gets the reps he needs in the regular season.
That’s not to say Brooklyn shouldn’t have caught Griffin when he became available. Nash said he envisions Griffin helping them as a small-roll playmaker – imagine an opposing defense trapping Harden, then having to take on Griffin in the middle of the floor, playing 4-on-3 with a lob threat on the edge. and all the rest. time shooters spaced on the perimeter. Griffin doesn’t exclusively must be a small ball 5; he can play next to Jordan or Claxton. This season, in particular, many teams have had their depth tested. The Nets might not need another big one now, but maybe they will in a few weeks.
Griffin’s presence, however, makes some of Nash’s job more difficult. Brown, a 6-foot-4 “guard” worked like a 5 on offense and thrived specifically in the small roll – he and Harden were the best pick-and-roll combination in the whole league, by Jared Dubin at FiveThirtyEight . Great rookie Reggie Perry is back from the G League bubble. After Durant’s hamstring heals, he might even play center. “We’ve gone from trying to put together a list to now we have tons of guys and options,” Nash said. Optionality is a good thing, but “the downside is that we’d like to have a long look at each of them and maybe we won’t. So there are some guesses that are going to come into play for this. trying to figure out what our rotations are, what the best rosters are, what our best games are for different teams and units. “These decisions are heavy. Nash can’t play everyone.
Brooklyn signed Griffin for a minimum contract, and Nash is going into it without any expectations. “I just want to see him enjoy his game, feel good and move as well as he can at this point, in this amount of time,” Nash said, “and I hope to incorporate that into what we let’s do and allow him to find a good role. ”Griffin will likely look better in this setting than he did at the start of the season. He is, however, a redemption guy, and the history of redemption guys is not a pretty one. That he turns 32 next week and isn’t far from stardom is heartening, but Amar’e Stoudemire, now an assistant coach of the Nets, was 32 when he took a buyout from the New York Knicks and s’ joined the Dallas Mavericks in what turned out. to be his second-last season in the league. While Griffin changed his game much more drastically than Stoudemire did to ward off the inevitable effects of age and injury, the NBA is even less kind to the big veterans now.
For now, the fit is still moot, as Griffin increases his workload after not playing for a full month. Jordan said he hopes to spend a few minutes with Griffin because of the chemistry they’ve built in Los Angeles. “I missed him,” said Brown, who played with him in Detroit. Ideally, these positive vibes will continue as Griffin returns to the field and familiarizes himself with his new situation. If all goes well, maybe the historic and senseless Nets attack will be even crazier. Trying to fit it in, however, they can’t lose sight of their main goal for the second half of the season: to find a way to be just good enough defensively. Claxton must play. Marginalizing him would be a mistake.
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