The Los Angeles Clippers have been on a roller coaster ride in the past year. The team beat the San Antonio Spurs in a close series, but then the team blew a 3-1 series lead against the Houston Rockets. The Clippers lost the stigma of being a team that couldn’t win anything, but then they regained the stigma after choking in the playoffs.
After the season, the team lost DeAndre Jordan to the Dallas Mavericks. After practically begging for him to come back to the team, Jordan went back on his verbal commitment to the Mavericks. But even after all of this, the Clippers weren’t able to play at full strength after Blake Griffin suffered a quad injury in the Christmas Day game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
However, the Clippers chose to rise instead of fall like the Clippers of the past. During the 16 games Griffin has missed, the Clippers have raced out to a 13-3 record, climbing up to the No. 4 position in the Western Conference hierarchy. Furthermore, Griffin got into a fight with a member of his team’s staff and will now miss even more time.
After all that has happened, it is becoming more and more clear that the Clippers should trade Griffin. In the 30 games Griffin has played this season, Griffin is averaging 23.2 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. A couple of seasons ago, Griffin was a top three candidate for the MVP award. But the Clippers are still winning games without him and that is never a good sign, especially when Griffin could be considered the most important member of the Clippers’ team.
Griffin often stops the ball movement of the team when he decides to face up to the basket and make his move. Yes, Griffin is a one of the best passing power forwards in the league. But unless his matchup is easily winnable, Griffin’s advances towards the basket can sometimes end in disaster. There was once a time when a player called Griffin a “bull in a china shop” because he sometimes plays out of control.
Griffin and Jordan are good compliments to each other as people, but there can sometimes be problems with spacing. On days that Griffin’s shot is not falling, the lane becomes very clogged up because of Jordan’s limitations. Now that it is becoming more evident that Griffin’s absence hasn’t affected the team too badly, the team should use this opportunity to find a shooting power forward that is more mature and reliable than Griffin.
