Doc Rivers has said the Los Angeles Clippers will probably start Blake Griffin, but he will be playing with limited minutes due to his current conditioning.
Blake Griffin has started his four-game suspension and he’s expected to return on April 3 against the Washington Wizards. It’s nothing shy of excellent news for the Los Angeles Clippers as they’ve clearly struggled more as of late, missing Griffin’s interior presence, rebounding, and generally his entire versatile skill-set as they persevere with small-ball. And while Doc Rivers has said that Griffin will probably remain in the starting lineup as expected once he’s back, the Clippers head coach has added that poor conditioning will limit his minutes.
The key problem with the quadriceps injury taking so long to fully recover is that it’s greatly hindered Griffin’s ability to work on his fitness and endurance, keeping him out of game shape even if he’s playing well technically in practice. Plus, running on a treadmill is far from the full intensity of real training or game competition.
Doc has said that three minutes in a row is all Griffin could manage after the team’s latest session, so clearly he’ll be dealing with some restrictions once he returns at the start of April (per Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times):
"“He had no endurance as far as his wind, but as far as just playing basketball, he looked terrific,” Coach Doc Rivers said before the Clippers defeated the Denver Nuggets, 105-90, Sunday at Staples Center. “It’s amazing watching what three months does, though, as far as memory of the sets and the timing. That wasn’t pretty, but overall he looked good.”Rivers said Griffin would probably remain in the starting lineup.“It’s how many minutes in a row can he play,” Rivers said. “If you went by [Saturday], it would be three. But hopefully by then he’ll be better. … Honestly, I don’t know if you can get him in condition to play 35 minutes or 30 minutes right away.”"
After dealing with multiple injuries and missing so much time, a minute restriction is expected. And judging by his current conditioning, it sounds like pick-and-pop jumpers rather than coast-to-coast dunks are the kind of scores that suit Griffin best at the moment. For a player who still uses his incredible athleticism in so many ways — despite all the improvements he’s made to his skill set — his conditioning is just as important as anyone’s.
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Not to mention, they’ll need his endurance to really add some improved interior defensive presence and rebounding in the place of Paul Pierce at the four.
As Doc said, Griffin won’t be in condition to play the 34.9 minutes per game that he was before injury this season. After the quadricep injury has caused such a delay, it’s hardly surprising. On top of that, the Clippers will need some time to adjust to his comeback stylistically after being forced to rely on small-ball for the last few months.
The problem this causes is how well the team can adjust to Griffin playing maybe 23 minutes or so a night in the seven regular season games they’ll have to prepare before the playoffs start.
Once his conditioning is on point, the Clippers could soar above the general high level of play they’ve maintained for most of his absence (prior to the recent struggles, of course). Alternatively, their offense could be a little stagnant at first, causing them to enter the postseason below their potential.
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The latter seems most likely to begin with, but the Clippers will have to hope for the former once April 3 strikes. Only time will tell as we see what changes the Blake Griffin comeback brings to Los Angeles.
Hearing Doc say that he already looks terrific from a basketball standpoint, though, is certainly an encouraging sign.