Blake Griffin is ‘definitely sick of taking hard hits’
Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin is a terrible free throw shooter, and an unrefined post player. The All-Star is also an explosive scorer and leaper that can still manage to throw in a two-handed dunk even with your burliest big man hugging his hips, on his way to over 20 points per game. The combination of these factors creates a whole hunk of hard fouls, as Griffin flings himself at the rim. And, because defenders are told to do everything they can to prevent Blake from earning endless and-one whistles, the man gets hit. Hard. And he's having a hard time dealing with it.
On the heels of Derrick Rose complaining about the same treatment on Monday, Griffin honestly answered a question about the hard licks to the Orange County Register, via SLAM:
"I'm definitely sick of taking hard hits," Griffin said after the Clippers' shootaround Monday. "…There's a point, I can't remember what game it was, in my mind where I thought this is kind of ridiculous. I'm sick of it, but it's going to keep on happening. It's affected me this year a lot, especially with the referees," he said. "I'm just getting frustrated and getting myself in trouble with officials."
As the OCR's Dan Woike points out, Griffin has been called for 11 technical fouls this season (one was later rescinded), and he's in danger of being suspended for a game if he earns three more. And while we can't imagine what it's like to take the pounding that Griffin does, nearly nightly, you've likely seen him play quite a bit this year on national TV. He's earned those technicals. He's probably earned far more.
This is, unfortunately, a function of Griffin's game at this point. While there have been a few cheap shots here and there (most notably Jason Smith's take down of BG from earlier this month), his still-developing (it is developing … right?) post game forces him into the sorts of finishes that lend themselves to hard wrap-ups. It isn't fair to write that Griffin tries to dunk everything, because he still tosses up plenty of outside jumpers and attempts to work spin moves in the post, but he does dash to the rim a whole lot.
And when you're shooting 52 percent from the free throw line, and opponents have six fouls a piece to pass around? You're going to get fouled. And when you're beastly-strong, and able to score despite typical fouling contact? You're going to get fouled hard.
Mind you, Griffin is just fine for being honest about being "sick" about these fouls. And because of the style of play we detailed above, it is "kind of ridiculous" for Blake to be taking more of these type of hits this year than just about any player (Dwight Howard, who has sort of taken it easy on both ends in 2011-12, slid down the list this season), even if he does appear to whine and moan about non calls more than just about any player we've seen this season.
On the heels of Derrick Rose complaining about the same treatment on Monday, Griffin honestly answered a question about the hard licks to the Orange County Register, via SLAM:
"I'm definitely sick of taking hard hits," Griffin said after the Clippers' shootaround Monday. "…There's a point, I can't remember what game it was, in my mind where I thought this is kind of ridiculous. I'm sick of it, but it's going to keep on happening. It's affected me this year a lot, especially with the referees," he said. "I'm just getting frustrated and getting myself in trouble with officials."
As the OCR's Dan Woike points out, Griffin has been called for 11 technical fouls this season (one was later rescinded), and he's in danger of being suspended for a game if he earns three more. And while we can't imagine what it's like to take the pounding that Griffin does, nearly nightly, you've likely seen him play quite a bit this year on national TV. He's earned those technicals. He's probably earned far more.
This is, unfortunately, a function of Griffin's game at this point. While there have been a few cheap shots here and there (most notably Jason Smith's take down of BG from earlier this month), his still-developing (it is developing … right?) post game forces him into the sorts of finishes that lend themselves to hard wrap-ups. It isn't fair to write that Griffin tries to dunk everything, because he still tosses up plenty of outside jumpers and attempts to work spin moves in the post, but he does dash to the rim a whole lot.
And when you're shooting 52 percent from the free throw line, and opponents have six fouls a piece to pass around? You're going to get fouled. And when you're beastly-strong, and able to score despite typical fouling contact? You're going to get fouled hard.
Mind you, Griffin is just fine for being honest about being "sick" about these fouls. And because of the style of play we detailed above, it is "kind of ridiculous" for Blake to be taking more of these type of hits this year than just about any player (Dwight Howard, who has sort of taken it easy on both ends in 2011-12, slid down the list this season), even if he does appear to whine and moan about non calls more than just about any player we've seen this season.
