Thunder: Playing what-if on Blake Griffin
Posted by berrytramel
on February 22, 2011M at 8:00 am
Twenty-one months ago, in Secaucus, N.J., the NBA draft lottery eliminated team by team, until only three organizations were standing for the right to draft Blake Griffin.
The Clippers. The Grizzlies. The Thunder.
You know what happened. Griffin is all the rage of the NBA, even if he does toil for the woeful Clippers. The Grizzlies took Hasheem Thabeet, who hasn’t played much, and the Thunder grabbed James Harden, who has been a solid, albeit not spectacular, sixth man for your good guys.
But think back to the anticipation when the lottery show went to commercial break on May 19, 2009. Only three franchises out of 14 still in the running, and Oklahoma City was one of them with a chance to draft its homegrown star.
What if the winning envelope had come up Thunder? What if Griffin had been added to the Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook/Jeff Green triumvirate? What would the Thunder team, the Thunder franchise, look like now?
Well, let’s take the organization first. The Thunder would be even more ballyhooed than now. No small feat. Out here on the prairie, what some people call the NBA’s oblivion, the Thunder has made a name for itself with a remarkable success story on the court and at the ticket office. Durant and Westbrook have become bonafide stars, and the spotlight would shine only brighter with Griffin around.
Tickets would be impossible to find — sort of like tickets for tonight’s Griffin homecoming, Clippers vs. Thunder — and sponsorships would be enhanced. As the countdown to that 2009 lottery, the Thunder was prepared for a marketing blitz that on the hometown kid, who grew up in northwest Oklahoma City, went to Oklahoma Christian School and the University of Oklahoma, all within 25 miles of the Ford Center.
But what of the Thunder team? Would the remarkable turnaround of the franchise still have occurred? Would the Thunder still have gone from 23-59 in 2008-09 to the 50-win season a year ago that included scaring the playoff pants off the Lakers? Would the Thunder be the No. 4 team in the Western Conference, as it is now?
That’s much more difficult to determine. All kinds of things come into play, including chemistry. Griffin, by all accounts, is a swell fellow to have on a team, and a guy who can rebound like a demon and score big is always valuable. But you never know. Harden has been a superb glue guy, very popular with teammates, including Mr. Durant.
Of course, Griffin’s presence would have created salary cap nightmares for general manager Sam Presti. The Thunder opened the bank to pay Durant last summer and figures to do the same this summer with Westbrook. Could the Thunder then pay a mega-contract to Griffin in summer 2012? I don’t claim to be an expert in NBA economics, but exactly where was all that money going to come from?
How would Griffin fit in on this roster? Very well, but he would have made the Thunder look different. Green, for instance, likely would be in Harden’s sixth man role. Green definitely would be playing more wing than post. I’m probably in the minority, but I actually think Green is a better power forward than small forward, though I like him at both spots.
It’s also possible that Griffin’s presence could have slowed the development of Serge Ibaka. You never know if Griffin would have had to sit out his rookie season because of injury, as he did with the Clippers. But if not, Griffin absolutely would have eaten into Ibaka’s minutes, maybe to the point that we still wouldn’t know the vast ability of Ibaka.
So I’m not sure Griffin would have made a huge difference in wins and losses. Hard to believe the Thunder could have improved much at all on 50 wins, replacing Harden with anyone. Hard to believe the Thunder could be too much ahead of its current 53-win pace.
But still. This Thunder team would have been a total load. Griffin is basically Ibaka, only a way better rebound and a way better scorer. Griffin cleaning up the boards on Durant and Westbrook shots that don’t go in? How exactly is someone supposed to defend that kind of team?
And how about the athletic ability? Green would be about the fourth-best dunker on that team, and Green is a heck of a dunker. Westbrook, Griffin, Ibaka, Green. You’re talking about a trampoline act without the trampolines.
It’s fun to dream. The Boomers would be the greatest show on hardwood. Would they be better than they are now? Probably, though you never know.
