Los Angeles Clippers: Blake Griffin Now Or ’05-06 Elton Brand?
Who would you rather have today, Blake Griffin or the Elton Brand of the 2005-06 season?
The year was 2006, George W. Bush was in the White House, the housing market was hopping, and girls everywhere dreamed about destroying the property of men after listening to Carrie Underwood.
And in the NBA, the Los Angeles Clippers were enjoying the best season in franchise history, led by All-Star power forward Elton Brand.
That year, Brand averaged almost 25 points and more than 10 rebounds per game, and led the Clippers out of the first round in the NBA playoffs for the first time since long before they even were the Los Angeles Clippers.
Eight years later, another All-Star power forward is propelling the Clippers to yet another appearance in the playoffs. Blake Griffin this year is averaging more than 22 points and eight rebounds per game.
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Clipper fans are both thankful, in the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, for having seen two spectacular big men play for their team, but that begs the question, who would you rather have: 2005-06 Elton Brand or 2014-15 Blake Griffin?
On the surface, Brand seems to be the better rebounder, and looking at the advanced, that suspicion is confirmed. Griffin’s total rebound percent, showing the percent of available rebounds a player retrieves, is a mediocre 12.8 percent, while Brand’s was 14.8 percent. So Brand actually grabbed more of the available rebounds than Griffin.
Defensive rebounding percent, is also led by Brand, at 19.9 percent, while Griffin is only at 17.7 percent. So Brand was undeniably better at cleaning the glass, but what about shot blocking? Surely the athletic Griffin was better at swatting opponents shots, right?
As Lee Corso would say, not so fast my friend.
Brand actually averaged 2.3 blocks per 36 minutes in 2005-06, while Griffin inexcusably averages a paltry 0.3 blocks per 36 minutes this season. In fact, while Brand was on the floor, he blocked almost 5 percent of opponent’s shots, while Griffin only blocks 0.7 percent.
Griffin is actually only marginally effective this year on defense, with just 0.3 defensive win shares, an advanced statistic that estimates how many wins the player contributes on defense.
Meanwhile, in 2005-06, Brand had 5.5 defensive win shares, which is better than any Griffin season to date.
OK, so Brand was better on defense, but what about those amazing Griffin dunks? That must mean Griffin is better on offense than Brand.
Again, stats tell a different story. Brand was ferocious that season, shooting almost 53 percent from the field while Griffin is only shooting 47 percentthis season. This despite both players with similar field goal attempts per game, right around 18 shots.
Plus, Griffin is enjoying much stronger play from his point guard, as 62.4 percent of Griffin field goals are assisted, compared to just 59.5 percentfor Brand.
And while the current version of the Clippers are maligned for their poor three-point shooting, Elton Brand’s Clippers were one of the bottom 10 teams in three-point percentage, ranking just 21st in the NBA at 34.4 percent. Today in Los Angeles, Griffin’s team hits 37.6 percent of its three-point tries, good for fifth.
So Grffin has both better shooting around him and better passing to get him the ball, but he cannot score at anything close to the efficiency that Brand showed in that magical 2005-06 season.
Looking through the statistics, it was hard to find anything that Griffin does better than vintage Elton Brand, despite overwhelming public sentiment that Griffin is the better player.
Clearly, if 2005-06 Elton Brand were on the current Clippers team, then writers all over the association might be talking about MVP consideration, and the Clippers would be talking championship.