The Detroit Pistons just traded for an NBA star in Blake Griffin. To find a post about how the trade went down, and general pros and cons, follow THIS LINK. Here, we're going to take a look at what kinds of things Blake does on the court: How he meshes with various lineups, what kinds of wrinkles he adds on offense, how he impacts a team's defense.
Who, or WHAT, is blake Griffin?
Before looking at Blake Griffin through the specific lens of the Pistons, lets talk a bit about his game in general. Below are the last 2 years (and total career numbers) for: Per Game, Per 100, and Advanced stats, per Basketball-Reference.com.
So now that you've seen the numbers, we can talk just in general about who Blake is.
Offensively, Griffin is a playmaking, attacking power forward. At 6'10, 250 lbs, he's a freight train with legitimate handles and vision. Historically, Blake's reputation is as a powerful dunker, but his game has both evolved, and shifted, over the course of his career. In part, this has been due to injury - Blake's had knee surgery, and plenty of dings that may have shaved a bit of his edge off. But it's vastly incorrect to think that these injuries are a catalyst for the shifts in his game; Griffin has made a concerted, informed effort every year to improve his skills and play within himself. He saw what he needed to do to fill the holes in his game - honing his jumper to be an efficient midrange shooter, then over the last year or so honing it out to beyond the arc. Griffin came into the league as a forward with handles and vision, but he spent years building a portfolio of passes and actions alongside rim-running big man DeAndre Jordan, specializing in passes in traffic. Griffin built an ungainly but effective post game to take advantage of his size and strength. Moving into his 8th year, heading towards age 29, Griffin has become a technically savvy player who uses still-elite athleticism to highlight his skills, instead of the other way around.
Obviously Griffin has a lot of value in the Pick and Roll - not only can he be a traditional rim runner, but he has a lot of value on the short roll (sliding into the middle of the paint for kick outs), can invert the set (handle the ball for a guard screener), run 4-5 PNRs (where he is the ball-handler running a PNR with a center). Griffins ability to play both parts of the high PNR creates nightmare matchups for defenders - the simple action already causes issues, but the ability to run it 3 or 4 different ways with the same personnel is confusing and exhausting for the defense.
In addition, Griffin is excellent at operating out of the middle of the floor, along the elbows, in what we call the high-post. From the free throw area he's able to command the whole floor. He can initiate tight PNR from there, pass to cutters in triangle and split actions, spin drive, spot up, initiate a DHO. High Post actions are the among most classic in all of basketball, featured in offenses throughout the decades, and they remain potent and flexible.
Blake's jumper may not have the most elite levels of efficiency, but they do allow him to space the floor. Blake can spot up at various points around the arc, and leverage the threat of the roll to create space in the Pick-and-Pop game. He can find pockets inside the arc as well, often able to find catch and shoot looks around the elbows; catch and shoot looks that can quickly be transformed into high post actions if the defense contests in time. There is a fine balance to be had here - Griffin's efficiency isn't high enough to warrant forcing actions to get him the ball in spot up looks. These are shots that are best taken within the greater flow of the offense. Luckily Blake's offensive IQ is high, and he knows when to leverage half-open looks into something better.
The defensive side of the Ball is where Griffin may struggle. His effort on this end has never been the highest, and his technique isn't always the best. That said, when he's locked in, he can have an impact. Blake is strong, and does an acceptable job defending rolling bigs on their way to the hoop. That strength also lends itself well to defending in the post. Griffin's lateral agility is more questionable - when defending isolations against smaller players he can struggle, though he has a good IQ for containing PNR ball-handlers. Blake struggles at times closing out on shooters, and generally is less flexible playing across multiple positions than he is on offense. He's a solid rebounding forward, and can box out when needed, but hasn't always attacked the glass with the fervor you'd like to see. Overall, Blake's a solid defender, but not an elite one, and leans more towards being sound than being impactful.
Fitting in and Standing out
Now that we know who Blake is, where does he fit in with the Pistons?
Stan Van Gundy's tenure in Orlando a decade ago marked one of the fist glimpses of the kind of modern floor spacing we see in today's NBA. Often called the 4-OUT concept, the idea was to surround one dominate, rim-running big man with shooters, and use high pick-and-roll actions to draw defenders into the paint for kick out 3s. This idea, in a variety of forms, has quickly gained steam, and become the dominant, driving force in the NBA. SVG runs several basic concepts: Spread PNR, Horns PNR, and his new motions sets (which also contain a lot of Horns looks). Griffins fit in spread PNR concepts is simple - he can spot up around a 1-5 PNR, the recipient of kick outs and swing passes as Drummond's gravity sucks in defenders. He can also be the roll man, either with Drummond hovering in the "dunker spot" along the baseline, or as a 5 man in small lineups. When spacing, his gravity is low as a shooter - respectable, but lower than a true shooter - meaning he's liable to be the open man on kick outs. This is a comfortable spot for Blake - as soon as he catches the ball, he's instantly one of the most dangerous players in the NBA. He can shoot the open looks of course, but also leverage pump fakes or bad closeouts to drive hard and initiate his own drive and kick, and he's a good swing passer and skip passer, able to see over the defense and take advantage of lapses. When rolling himself, Blake is especially able to make quick reads on the short roll - catching the ball around the free throw line. This catch is less effective for non-playmakers with poor handles, as it's often to far from the rim for the player to get there without putting the ball on the deck. Traditional bigs want to catch it within a step of putting the ball up, which means below the FT line. Griffin's ability to put the ball on the floor allows him to unlock different timings on the PNR; the situation often puts him in an isolation against a help defender, opening up all sorts of lobs and kick outs not available off deeper catches. If the defense is too scared to leave anyone, Griffin is looking at an easy path to the rim. This was something the Pistons really didn't get out of Tobias Harris, who struggled to make early passing reads. The short roll is a popular way that the Warriors use Draymond Green in the PNR, highlighted in the short video below.
The other PNR concept SVG uses is another one the Clippers used quite often, one utilizing one of the most common sets in the NBA: Horns. Horns is a basic set in which both wings start in the corners, both bigs start on the elbows, and the ball handler is in the middle. The bigs can come up and set all sorts of combinations of screens, allowing the ball handler to pick a variety of directions. Traditionally if the PNR is run out of this set one big will roll with the ball handler, the other will step out to the line for an open 3. Bigs can screen for each-other, creating all sorts of switches and confusion for the ball handler to attack. Additionally, the bigs can move to off-ball positions to screen for the wings, or the ball can be entered to one of them to initiate high post offensive looks. You can learn more about the set itself below in Coach Nicks breakdown.
This is where Griffin's versatility really shines. He can use Drummond's screens to brush off and confuse defenders to find space for open jumpers, or slip through the cracks and roll to attack. He can slip into space behind an Andre roll to find post up positions and more short-roll looks. He can use the position to initiate the motion looks, or use the confusion to take over as the ball handler and attack himself. And when they choose to use Horns to set up off-ball screens, Griffin is an excellent screener on pin-downs and back-screens to free up cutters for someone else to pass to. The subtleties and branches of the Horns sets allow Griffin's skill to shine in many ways.
The motion sets are new to the Pistons this year, and often referred to as "Elbow" sets. In Elbow sets, the ball is entered into the high post and the team focuses on reading the defense and moving off the ball, cutting to the hoop or sprinting to spot up locations. Motion offenses require good vision from the big man and good chemistry with the wings, as they both need to read the same things from the defense to make good passes. Van Gundy has installed the motion offense to take advantage of Drummond as a passer, and Blake is even more versed in how to operate with the ball in his hands. He makes excellent passes both over the top of the defense and tight bounces into waiting hands, and players like Reggie Bullock who put the effort into making hard cuts are sure to be rewarded with savvy passing.
When cutters aren't open the sets move on to handoffs and pitches, often in the familiar horns sets. In handoffs, a big man holds the ball as a wing cuts towards them, and then passes it off like a QB to an RB in football as the wing scoots on by. This allows similar results to a PNR, only the new ball-handler is already moving at high speed, forcing quicker reactions from the defense. Drummond and Avery Bradley ran many DHO actions already this season, and Blake makes great reads in these situations as well. Pitches work similary, but with the idea that instead of collecting the ball from the big man, the ball handler is receiving a short pass. The subtle differences between a pure handoff and pitch change the timing of various actions to follow, creating confusion in the defense.
Two good screening and passing bigs open lots of counter moves as well - for example, a big can pitch the ball from the left elbow to a wing coming around a screen on the right. The ball can flip between elbows to change angles in a heartbeat, throwing off defenders. And once the defense is fully engaged in stopping players from receiving the ball from the DHO, they often end up giving the big man room to turn and drive down the lane to the hoop, something Blake is exceptionally well built for. Take a look at the Andre Drummond highlights above and you'll see many actions where Blake could be doing the same thing.
Griffin also specializes in side PNR. Side PNR often is initiated near the corner break in the 3pt line, intended to get one of the players involved rolling or driving into empty space along a wing that's been cleared out. This is great for Blake, where he can attack spaces, and naturally fall into post ups if he can't face up the whole way. This is an action, and an area of the floor, where the pocket pass is extremely important to do (the angles of the passes are very demanding) and Griffin is excellent at measuring them and hitting roll men right where they want the ball.
Finally, we can take a second to look at Blake's ability to just dominate in isolation. The man is a brutish driver, able to beat people to spots, power through body contact down low, and finish strong through contact up top. Blake draws fouls, and is incredibly punishing on smaller players. When he doesn't have a favorable angle, Griffin posts up and opens up a decent playbook of moves and finishes. He has the strength to back opponents down, and the agility and quicks to spin both ways. Blake prefers to finish going to the basket over using jump hooks, but he has a couple of fade-away jumpers in the arsenal when he needs to pull them out. Of course, if the defense doubles a Griffin isolation, he has a great feel for kicking it out. He's good enough that many teams will double on the catch, certainly doubling on the dribble, which opens up many looks when offensive flow isn't cutting it.
Defensively, Griffin provides a stabilizing force, and lineup flexibility. For starters, as already shown in his debut, Griffin can play the 5 when Drummond is out. Having a legitimate 1-2 punch at Center, a center that can run the motion sets like Andre, is nice. But considering how vacant that spot has been this season without Baynes, having a smart player back there if Andre is hurt/gassed/has fouls, is vital. Detroit has run a bit of a blitzing defense at times, which is more suited to Drummond's lateral agility, but Griffin does allow for switching amongst the big men and forwards. This is the first time Drummond has played next to a smart, stable defensive player at forward; Tobias Harris and Greg Monroe simply couldn't provide that. The consistency to trust that someone else is playing defense is important. We've seen it when Drummond plays with Tolliver: good communication, trusting guys to recover properly, and trusting guys to cover your butt makes a huge difference.
Griffin covers the PNR rather well. He's strong and big enough to handle big men, and isn't afraid to sky to disrupt lob passes in his area. He does a decent job on ball handlers, he backpedals and slides fairly well, and Griffin's got good disruptive hands. Generally, Griffin plays his hands fairly safe, but he does a good job taking advantage of opportunities he sees. Closeouts on shooters during scramble situations will be a struggle for Blake, but it's been a struggle for the whole team - the Pistons have just not communicated well enough about their activity inside the paint on defense this year. His physicality on the boards will be a relief for Drummond at times, who has been carrying an incredible load for the Pistons in that area. Andre will remain the volume rebounder on offense, and schematically SVG will likely have Blake fall back with the rest of the team on defense. This has been a core principle of how they operate for several years now, and because of it the Pistons have consistently given up the fewest transition opportunities in the NBA. They have at times struggled defending the transition when it does happen though, so having a big man with sound physical presence at the rim could be huge. Defensively, Blake can box out very well, which should help both he and Andre vacuum boards together. The pistons team rebounding with Andre on the floor often struggles to take advantage of his efforts if Andre himself doesn't get the board, Griffin should hopefully solve (or at least mitigate) that issue. Filling in for Tobias
First things first: Tobias, I miss you, thank you for everything.
That said, below are some of Tobias' best nights as a Piston this year. Take a look and picture Griffin in his shoes. Tobias was a better outside shooter - Griffin likely wont take nearly as many spot up 3s. There are a lot of play making opportunities that Tobias misses as he drives - Griffin is more likely to make passes out of the paint. Griffin is a better screener, more solid, but less likely to fake the screen and slip out for the shot. Griffin is also more comfortable in the post, and more flexible. Tobias would almost always try and finish middle, Blake is more comfortable shooting over people when facing up and using the baseline. Pay close attention to actions where Tobias is either setting or faking a screen, because that's where Blake might have the most difference. In addition, Griffin has a tendency to draw more fouls in isolation. And of course, Griffin is a more solid defender, an area that Tobias struggled with in general, and a more aggressive reboundder.
DeeeeTroit BAAASSKetBall!
All in all, I'm looking forward to seeing Blake Griffin in a Detroit Pistons uniform. Many good things came of the opening game against the Grizzlies, many promising signs. His flexability adds a lot of possibilities to the team, and he brings a level of individual go-get-a-bucket star power that hasn't been in the D for quite some time.
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February 2018
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