The bulk of Blake Griffin’s assists to DeAndre Jordan in the seven years they’ve been teammates on the Clippers have come in one of two ways. The first is in the form of high-low passes. The second is following a pick-and-roll between Chris Paul and Griffin with Jordan patrolling the baseline.
By this time next year, we should be able to add a third to the list: pick-and-rolls with Griffin as the ball-handler and Jordan as the roller.
Griffin hasn’t spent much time as the ball handler in pick-and-rolls over the last two seasons, but what he has shown is promising. He is coming off of a season in which he ranked in the 94.4 percentile with 1.04 points per pick-and-roll possession. The season prior he ranked in the 99.0 percentile with 1.18 points per pick-and-roll possession. Although it’s only a small sample size of 138 possessions over two seasons, Griffin becoming a full-time point forward this season means he should get more a lot more opportunities to run his own pick-and-rolls.
Griffin has the tools to thrive in those situations as well. While he isn’t a volume shooter from the perimeter, he made 40.8 percent of his mid-range pull-ups last season. The only big men who drove more than him were Paul Millsap, Dario Saric and DeMarcus Cousins. He’s long been a versatile scorer in the post who can bully smaller defender. Those tools give him what he needs to take advantage of the defense, whether it’s pulling up when defenders drop underneath screens, turning the corner with speed or punishing smaller defenders on the block on switches.
As for Jordan, we already know that he’s one of the best rollers in the NBA. Last season,19.5 percent of his offense came as the roll man and he ranked in the 99.1 percentile with 1.52 points per possession. Despite not being able to pick-and-pop, Jordan is nearly unstoppable in those situations because of his combination of speed, size and athleticism. If the defender isn’t in perfect position, he’ll slip backdoor and make himself available for an alley-oop. He doesn’t even need a full head of steam to put himself in scoring position because of how quickly he can get off the floor.
Throw Griffin’s ability to score and facilitate as well as anyone at his position into the mix, and Jordan should be able to get some of the same looks he did when Chris Paul was throwing him lobs out of the pick-and-roll. Lobs like this:
Most power forwards aren’t used to defending those sorts of possessions, which should create an advantage for Griffin and Jordan. If they switch, Griffin will have an opportunity put a 7-footer on an island. Jordan can then attack the offensive glass — where 24.8 percent of his offense came from last season — with a smaller defender boxing him out in case Griffin misses.
Alternatively, Jordan can use his size to get deep post position against a smaller defender. Jordan isn’t much of a threat on the block, but he can easily catch and finish if he’s able to wall off a defender and position himself underneath the basket.
Those sorts of possessions will be important for Jordan to make up for the loss of Paul. In the six seasons Paul spent in Los Angeles before being traded to Houston, he assisted Jordan on 574 baskets. That’s 28.5 percent of his made field goals since 2010-11. Eliminate unassisted field goals from the equation — Jordan has 572 unassisted baskets compared to 1,444 assisted baskets during that time — and Paul was personally responsible for 39.8 percent of his assisted field goals.
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The player who has assisted Jordan on the second most baskets throughout his career is Griffin. Griffin won’t be able to replace Paul’s production entirely by himself, but he already has great chemistry with Jordan as well as the talent to become more of a playmaker. Put him in more pick-and-rolls as the ball handler and perhaps the loss of Paul doesn’t impact Jordan as much as it could. It could also help Griffin unlock his full potential as a scorer and passer.
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