Blake Griffin Has To Play Like Charles Barkley for the Los Angeles Clippers
The L.A. Clippers can breakthrough to the NBA Finals, if they get Blake Griffin to play like Charles Barkley.
Bar none, no matter what anyone says Charles Barkley is one of the best players to ever play in the NBA.
For his career Barkley averaged 22.1 points, 11.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. In fact out of the 16 years that Barkley played in the NBA he’s only had one year where he didn’t average a double-double.
Barkley played with passion, conviction and more importantly, confidence. It was Barkley’s confidence that gave him the opportunity to say this:
"I believe in my heart that we’re going to win the World Championship. I don’t care about being down 3-1. God wants us to win the World Championship….I talked to him the other night.”"
Barkley uttered those words the night he finished the basketball game with a 24-point, six rebound and six assist win against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the 1993 NBA Finals. The night before, Barkley’s Suns lost 111-105 to Jordan’s Bulls. Jordan had 55 points, eight rebounds and four assists while Barkley had 32 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
With that being said, everyone loves to say how the L.A Clippers are Chris Paul’s team but it’s not true. The future of the Clippers is Blake Griffin and he needs to take his game to the next level, because the 6-foot-10, 250-pound Charles Barkley clone has the potential to take the Clippers to the NBA Finals.
They’ve got the toughness of a flea and the toughest guy on their team is 5-7…
This has nothing to do with personality. Griffin doesn’t need to emulate every aspect of Barkley. People love calling Griffin softer than bread in water but Griffin is one of the strongest players in the league and when he shows restraint in games it makes him look like he’s unbreakable.
Opponents agitate, and play extremely tough against him because they all know that Griffin is one of the most powerful in the league. His toughness can get questioned but Griffin’s opponents know they don’t want any problems.
Speaking of something opponents don’t want any part of, enter L.A. Clippers point guard Chris Paul. Not only is Paul the Clippers best player, in nine years in the league he’s already proven.
He’s a first team All-NBA point guard, he’s an Olympic gold medalist, he’s made the All Star game seven times, and he’s still under the age of 30. If Paul has accomplished so much as the leader of the Clippers, and has taken them to the Western Conference Finals, why does he always get the blame? At the end of the day a point guard who averages 19.8 points, 10.3 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.8 steals per game, as Paul did in the playoffs last year, can only take so much blame.
At the end of the day Griffin has to play at an elite level as well and open the door as the key to the Clippers breakthrough.
Besides the 2013 NBA playoffs when Zach Randolph & Marc Gasol completely manhandled Griffin inside, he’s played very consistent basketball. What that consistency brings at time, is what I hope Griffin isn’t falling for, complacency.
After Barkley’s rookie season in the NBA he never averaged less than 24 points a game in the playoffs, until he left his prime at 33. Barkley was consistent but was never satisfied. He constantly worked and expanded his game until he could compete with Jordan. Griffin doesn’t have a rival as Barkley did with Jordan, but both Griffin and Barkley still share a high motor.
Though Griffin does have an extremely high motor, since his rookie season Griffin has progressively rebounded less. We can say it’s the emergence of L.A. Clippers center DeAndre Jordan as one of the best big men in the NBA, or we could say that Griffin’s getting complacent.
I’d like to think Jordan has become one of the best big men in the game. However both Jordan and Griffin could and should grab enough rebounds they each average double doubles. In fact eventually we should get ready to give the two glass cleaners a nickname. The Golden State Warriors have the “Splash Brothers”, the Minnesota Timberwolves have the “Dunk Brothers.” Jordan & Griffin could become the “Squeegee Brothers.”
On another note: I could see the awesome KIA commercial ideas now.
Last year on Inside the NBA Barkley even noticed that Griffin has to become the go to player for the L.A. Clippers and said this:
"They’ve got the toughness of a flea and the toughest guy on their team is 5-7…They are soft and they’re only going to go as far as Blake [Griffin] and DeAndre [Jordan] take them."
At the prime age of 25 years old, Griffin can start to take the next step and average a double double for the season, and have his most historic playoff run. Now is the most opportune time since the Western Conference has so many wrinkles to it. The Clippers have one of the best teams in the west because they have strengths against a lot of the contenders in the NBA weaknesses.
- Wanna beat the Warriors? The Clippers will have to have Griffin kill them inside.
- Wanna beat the Spurs, Griffin has to dominate Tim Duncan.
- Wanna beat the Cavaliers? Throw it to Griffin till the cows come home.
The same formula could get said about a lot of teams.
We know Griffin as a tenacious player and a fierce rebounder, but what he really has in common with Barkley is their ability to get other teammates involved. Griffin is averaging nearly four assists a game. Look at some of the stat lines from his games and see how truly versatile his game is.
- 22 points, 16 rebounds, nine assists against the Hornets.
- 23 points, 10 rebounds, six assists against the Spurs.
- 31 points, four rebounds, nine assists against the Jazz.
Just look at the two, see any of the similarities in their game like I do?
If you happen to see what I see then the L.A. Clippers will need to see a lot more similarities in their game of they want a chance to get to the NBA Finals.