Wed Jan 13, 2010 4:35 pm EST
Blake Griffin out for the season
By Kelly Dwyer
It's just been a miserable season for injuries in the NBA, and while I'd like to smug this up and pretend this is some other-worldly scheme created in order to make us unhappy, certain recent events discourage that.
What we do know, for the first time since October, is Blake Griffin's(notes) status for the 2009-10 season. He's out for the duration after further testing on his injured left patella tendon showed that Los Angeles Clippers doctors need to put him under the knife. Griffin will be sidelined another four to six months, likely preventing him from playing a single game during his rookie season, even if the Clippers make a miraculous run to the Finals.
There are no words, but swear words for this. Griffin is a team-changing talent. He doesn't do anything that will turn the league on its ear, or change the way the game is played. But he is the sort of low-post stud who can almost guarantee you a shot at the postseason by his lonesome.
Teamed with Baron Davis(notes), Chris Kaman(notes), Eric Gordon(notes) and Marcus Camby(notes)? The Clippers thought the playoffs were at the very least a certainty. Now, one night after they were unable to put away a mercurial Grizzlies squad (even after being spotted 12 points and a near-empty Memphis crowd), the Clips are going to have to deal with the news that Griffin's rookie season won't start until November.
The half-full approach tells you they haven't seen Griff in uniform since the preseason, anyway, and that they were used to this. That this is a team full of veteran players who know how to handle things, and that the Clippers (constructed in very much the same way) from 2008-09 were expected to make the playoffs as well. This team could continue trending upward, without needing the presence of a green kid to put it over the top.
Teams don't work like that, though. I'm not going to tell you this will put the Clippers in a funk, or that the team had it in pen they were to get 12 and seven from their rookie during the stretch run, but the assured disappearance of someone who wasn't ever there to begin with still stings.
The Clippers are three games out of the playoff bracket, in a Western Conference that might see as many as four teams with winning records miss the playoffs. This is tough, tough going. And while Gordon appears to be rounding into health and Davis rounding into shape (helping the Clippers' 23rd-ranked offense), patience and dogged determination in the face of a storm are two attributes you usually don't get from Davis-led teams.
You usually get bad 3-pointers. Attempts at making up a nine-point deficit with one home run shot. Rarely do you get consistent leadership and smart decisions.
The Clippers probably won't fold, but history tells us they aren't likely to rally in spite of this news. What you can likely bank on is for this oft-disappointing team to continue apace.
For Griff? He's a beast, and he'll be a beast once everything is tied back together. I watched the guy clang jumper after jumper in his lone workout for the Clippers last June, and despite the inconsistent form and nervous touch, there was nothing during his time on that court that dissuaded me from thinking he couldn't be a 24-point or 12-rebound guy in this league.
But in a season that has hampered Kobe Bryant(notes), taken half the Blazers away and denied us quite a bit due to various other ailments, it's just going to have to take longer than we'd hoped.
Curse word.
And, no, I'm not using the word "curse" as in "the Clippers are cursed."
Why? Because I'm not 12. Do you people still have Ouija boards?
Thu Mar 23, 2017 11:12 pm by The Kirby
Subject: Condolences to Kirby 
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