Picking on Griffin
Published: 3/31/2009 8:14 AM
Last Modified: 3/31/2009 8:14 AM
Blake Griffin returning to Oklahoma for his junior season would be the biggest miracle of college basketball since Digger Phelps last said something intelligent.
Or maybe it would simply take somebody showing Griffin this assessment from Jonathan Givony, presisdent of DraftExpress.com:
"He’s been a complete liability defending the pick and roll all season long, and often looks completely invisible when it comes to sliding into the paint on defensive rotations. Griffin offers very little as a shot-blocker considering his athleticism and gets in the passing lanes at an extremely poor rate."
Overpowering college basketball for the past five months despite being treated like he's signed up for a steel cage match isn't enough to make Griffin turn pro? First he's got to master the art of defending the pick and roll?
As Joan Cusack told Anthony Michael Hall on the bus at the beginning of "Sixteen Candles," "Uh... yeah."
A little more realistic is what one NBA scout told Stephen A. Smith of ESPN.com after watching Griffin against North Carolina last Sunday:
"His skills are too superior to everyone else. He can score at will. He's a ferocious rebounder with quick jumping ability. He's about to be the player of the year. There's 'star' written all over this guy.
"Tyler Hansbrough is a very good player with a place for him on the next level. He's simply too good a kid, too productive and too hard a worker not to be picked somewhere in the top 15.
"But Blake Griffin is just special. They shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence."
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
