Blake Griffin explains his dunking and Detroit Pistons time

Analysis of Blake Griffin GQ interview

If one remembers the beginning of the season, Pistons coach Dwane Casey kept playing Blake Griffin about 30-35 minutes a game, even though he gave him little for all that time.

But Griffin was certainly given full respect by the Pistons organization, and he has still not ripped the team at all. He said he was actually a bit mystified as to why Pistons fans would dislike him.

As for the conspiracy theory that he was going through the motions in Detroit this year until he could land with a contender, well, points could be made on both sides of that argument.

Griffin did start the season tentative, maybe testing his repaired legs out as he had not played a game in almost a year.

He said training camp took a lot out of him, but, this season, training camp was truncated and it is doubtful Casey ran Griffin into the ground during it.

More likely, he was unsure how he would be physically after two leg surgeries and did not play as strong an inside game as Detroit was used to. Quite a few times, he had a chance to post up a smaller defender and instead settled for a jumper.

(Author’s note: I actually watched 90-percent of Detroit’s games with Griffin, not just the highlights)

The fact is, Griffin took more three-pointers than two-pointers in Detroit, even though the Pistons, at that time, had better three-point options in Wayne Ellington, Svi Mykhaliuk (remember him?) and Saddiq Bey. In Brooklyn, he has shot more two-pointers than threes. He has changed his game with the Nets.

A far as the lack of dunking. Yes, it was not a full two years of games for Griffin. However, for Blake Griffin to play even just 20 games, without a single dunk? That is odd.

Maybe he did feel better physically by the time he went to Brooklyn. He certainly has less responsibility now then with Detroit, which does leave him with less attention from defenses.

Bottom line, take Griffin’s explanations as what he believes.