Blake Griffin to come off the bench

[Andrew]

Link

But coach Mike Dunleavy said Griffin will open training camp on the bench, with last season's starters -- Baron Davis, Marcus Camby, Eric Gordon, Al Thornton and Chris Kaman -- retaining their spots.

Presumably...hopefully...he'll be getting starter minutes anyway so it won't matter. Maybe they're just taking it easy as he adjusts to the NBA game and returns from his shoulder injury, but it seems to be holding back the immediate future of the club for a couple of bigs who are both fine players, but also players that have been on the trading block (Kaman) or are unlikely to be around once their contract expires (Camby). I'd opt to start Griffin alongside Kaman.

[nextnba]

Rookies are often over rated. Sometimes we forget how good nba players are and how long it takes for rookies to adjust and play at the nba level. Most no. 1 picks are not starter quality in their first season.

[Modifly]

Maybe they want Griffin to earn the starting spot, that way they'll be able to squeeze more juice out of him.

[Lamrock]

With Blake off the bench and Thornton starting, they can bring in John Wall next year!

[Angelo]

I think that is ok as long as he is given enough minutes to prove his worth not like that stupid Michael Olowakandi

[Andrew]

Rookies are often over rated. Sometimes we forget how good nba players are and how long it takes for rookies to adjust and play at the nba level. Most no. 1 picks are not starter quality in their first season.

I disagree. There's only about three or four in the past thirty years (just to grab a sample) that couldn't at least be considered good enough to start in the NBA right out of the gate. Even if you just want to go for the past decade (excluding Griffin), consider the players taken at number one:

2008: Derrick Rose
2007: Greg Oden
2006: Andrea Bargnani
2005: Andrew Bogut
2004: Dwight Howard
2003: LeBron James
2002: Yao Ming
2001: Kwame Brown
2000: Kenyon Martin
1999: Elton Brand

I'd say at least eight of those players were good enough to be regular starters in their rookie season. I think Griffin is probably capable of starting immediately as well.

[Martti.]

I think Griffin is capable, but it should be easier to adjust. Camby is 35, so minutes should come for him. Plus, he will add a lot of versatility to the Clippers second unit. And perhaps be the second rookie to win 6th man of the year.

[Doobie]

Griffin will start half way through the season. Chances are Camby will get injured or traded. Thorton has a good chance of playing himself into the bench. Griffin on the bench won't last very long.

[JaoSming]

Griffin will start half way through the season. Chances are Camby will get injured or traded. Thorton has a good chance of playing himself into the bench. Griffin on the bench won't last very long.

My thoughts exactly

[Andrew]

Camby didn't hold up too badly last year. I actually had to go back and look at his stats as I had it in my head that he only played around 30 games but he actually appeared in 62, a step back from 79 in 07/08 but not bad by his standards. I reckon the Clippers will hold onto him and let his contract expire unless someone's willing to overpay for the cap relief come the deadline, though if there's a five or ten game stretch where he's out that could be Griffin's opportunity to leap into the starting five.

[NovU]

He should be able to start over Thorton soon as potential is bigger, but I don't think Thorton will be too happy about it. With Kaman coming back, I think this team will be interesting to watch. I always liked Baron Davis, so I really hope to see him to become a better leader this year. However, I think it'll be wise for them to make a minor or even bigger moves involving Kaman, Thorton or Camby.

[Andrew]

Thornton's the starting small forward though. I don't think they'd spend a lot of time with Camby, Kaman and Griffin together up front as I don't think any of them would be particularly adept at guarding the perimeter. Could give them an advantage at the offensive end, but wouldn't be worth it down at the other.

[jonthefon]

John Wall and Blake Griffin on the same team, along with Eric Gordon, makes my penis hard. Well, not really but that would be insane...if it weren't for the fact that Baron still has that contract.

[nextnba]

2008: Derrick Rose
2007: Greg Oden
2006: Andrea Bargnani
2005: Andrew Bogut
2004: Dwight Howard
2003: LeBron James
2002: Yao Ming
2001: Kwame Brown
2000: Kenyon Martin
1999: Elton Brand

D.R. - Good first year
G.O. - Still not good enough to start now
A.B. - Took him years to become a starter. Still in question if he will even be a stable starter.
A.B. - Took him several years to become starter quality.
D. H. - Very raw first year
L. J. - More than enough to start first year
Y. M. - Very very raw first year
K. B. - Do not even need to talk about him
K. M. - Very raw first year as well
E. B. - Very good first year

Only 3 actually were starter quality. A few were bench players and the rest started only to get the expreince. Less than 50% are consider the top players on their current team.

[Andrew]

Kenyon Martin, Yao Ming, Dwight Howard and Andrew Bogut all posted respectable stats their first season, which while not necessarily All-NBA (in fact none of them were) they were certainly what I'd consider starter quality. Also, it's not as though there were vastly superior players on their respective teams and at their respective positions during their rookie years.

Of course, that is just a sampling of the last decade and as we all know, there are busts at number one and there are classes and individual players that are stronger than the other. Looking back through the first overall picks from the 90s, we've got Derrick Coleman, Larry Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Webber, Glenn Robinson, Joe Smith, Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, Michael Olowokandi and the aforementioned Elton Brand. Of those ten players, only one isn't starter quality and his numbers were still not bad given the amount of minutes he played, not to mention there weren't many options on that Clippers team that would've been better. In the 80s you had Joe Barry Carroll, Mark Aguirre, James Worthy, Ralph Sampson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Brad Daugherty, Danny Manning and Pervis Ellison. Not all success stories in the long run, but again most of them more than capable of being starters in the NBA. In the last thirty or so years there's a lot of players taken at number one who were at least ready to start straight away, so I still disagree that you can fairly say that "most number one picks are not starter quality in their first season".

And again, it comes down to who else is on the team. It's not only a matter of whether Griffin is good enough to start straight away - I think he could be - but whether bringing him off the bench with Camby and Kaman starting alongside one another is a good idea.

[Patr1ck]

Two injuries before the preseason even started, shoulder and knee. Plus he's out there the other day at practice shooting jumpers and then he jumps up in the air like he's healthy, Dunleavy screams and bangs on the window telling him to stop it, according to the LA Times.

I wonder if the Clippers push players too hard in the off season or if a veteran felt their starting position threatened and just increased their physical play on Griffin until he got hurt.

[Andrew]

That's certainly another factor, health. If they need to bring him along slowly because they want to be cautious, that's certainly fair enough. When I posted the thread it appeared he was fine after the shoulder injury in the summer league game. If he's not 100% then that could obviously hold him to back to begin with.

[nextnba]

In the last thirty or so years there's a lot of players taken at number one who were at least ready to start straight away, so I still disagree that you can fairly say that "most number one picks are not starter quality in their first season".

Sometimes No. 1 draft players get to start based on their potential and not necessary skills at that moment. Most NO. 1 rookies are starter for the purpose of grooming. I'm surprise that Griffin won't start. I don't think his number and productivity in the first year will be better than the other 5 starters but for the purpose of getting him experience and building him to be a franchise player, most team would start him and ride with him regardless of how productive and affective he is.

[Patr1ck]

He'll be starting in no time as soon as Camby or Kaman get injured. He could give them a nice go to guy off the bench, though.