We all know Blake Griffin needs a more consistent jump shot.
Spare me the “all he can do is dunk” line because first, it’s not true, and second, the dunk is the single most efficent shot in basketball and if a guy can get five or more dunks a game he should take every one of them. I’d rather have any NBA player dunking rather than shooting a 15-footer. Well, not J.J. Barea, but every other NBA player.
But to space the floor, make him a more dangerous player and for the good of the Clippers offense he needs a more consistent outside shot. Last season he averated 3.9 shots per game from 16 feet out to the arc and shot 37 percent on those (via Hoopdata.com). That has to improve. And he knows it.
He was on the Champs podcast — something found by Beckley Mason at TrueHoop — and was very open and honest about working on his jumper before Team USA training camp.I hired a shooting coach. I work with him every single day.
Yea (his old shooting form was) kind of a fadeaway or a push-arm shot. Or bring it behind my head -- slightly. Like if you watched me shoot you wouldn’t be like, “That’s a terrible shot.” It was decent, I guess. But now I’ve just kind of streamlined it. But I’ve still got a lot of work to do.
You struggle with it because when you relearn all this stuff I guess you shoot terrible. You shoot worse than you ever have. Then you turn a corner when it all kind of clicks together. It’s not really relearning to shoot, completely, but I turned the corner and felt a lot better about it. Then I got hurt... lost it all!
Griffin needed minor knee surgery after an injury during Team USA training camp (he had to miss the Olympics and was replaced on the roster by Anthony Davis).
But really this is just more time to work on the jump shot. And his comedy. But mostly his jump shot.