Blake Griffin Looking To Gain Confidence In Shooting Range

Blake Griffin is looking to gain confidence in his three-point shot, which is good news for the Los Angeles Clippers.

Blake Griffin is one of the more talented players in the NBA. The Los Angeles Clippers‘ power forward has grown a lot during his seven years in the NBA and is an integral part to the team’s success.

Griffin entered the NBA without much of an offensive game. He relied solely on his athleticism, providing thunderous highlight dunks on a nightly basis. Those dunks still happen, but Griffin has added some diversity to his game.

You will now see Griffin working in the midrange, as he is growing more confident in his jump shot. The Clippers are hoping that Griffin is ready to take the next step in jump shooting this season by confidently extending his range beyond the three-point line.

Griffin knows that if he wants to take his game to the next level, he will need to continue developing his shooting range to the three-point line.

"“I want to be someone who shoots from there confidently, for sure,” Griffin said after Thursday’s practice at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center. “A lot of us power forwards, our strength is inside or our versatility. You look at the best power forwards, Anthony Davis, LaMarcus (Aldridge), Draymond (Green) … they can all shoot but they can all put the ball on the floor and they can all score inside."

Griffin has two of those three things down pat. We have seen him put on a dribbling display to blow by bigger, slower players, using his athleticism to his advantage. He is a capable playmaker and has a high basketball IQ. We have also seen him get inside against smaller opponents and take advantage of his size.

The shooting is the only thing that he has not shown consistently yet, but he is working on it. If he does not yet have confidence in himself doing it, his teammates, namely Chris Paul, can make up for whatever is lacking.

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“Blake is Blake. We’re going to tell him to shoot it damn near every time he catches it,” Paul said earlier this week. “It’s one of those things I’m sure we’ll see when the games come how comfortable he is with it. But, we’ve had the confidence in him for awhile.”

Griffin has been becoming more comfortable with his jump shot, as his percentage of shots attempted from 16 feet and beyond has grown since Paul joined the team. In his second year in the NBA, Griffin attempted 22.3 percent of his shots from 16 feet or further; last season that number jumped to 45.8.

But he has not yet fully developed the deep shot. In his first three years in the NBA, Griffin attempted 68 three-pointers; in the last three, he attempted 87. It would be a pretty major jump, but to see Griffin attempt near one three-pointer a game during the 2016-17 season would not be surprising.

Griffin said it was a part of his offseason program, as he shot more three-pointers this offseason than he ever has. “I don’t necessarily think falling in love with the three-point shot is a good idea, but shooting it confidently from there is great,” Griffin said.

No one is expecting Griffin to turn into Ryan Anderson from deep, but shooting it from there with confidence would help on a number of fronts. It would help him expand his game, becoming a more dangerous player offensively. For the Clippers as a whole, it would help create the spacing they crave.

The Clippers have struggled in the halfcourt at times because their spacing is so poor. DeAndre Jordan is not a threat offensively outside of putbacks or being set up by Paul. Griffin is a threat, but teams were able to collapse with J.J. Redick being the only floor-spacer on the floor.

“The further out I can stretch, the more I can help open up the floor,” Griffin said. If Griffin can become a threat from there, it would open the paint for Paul and Jordan to operate and take some attention away from Redick on the perimeter as well.

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It would go a long way for Griffin and the team if he can successfully develop a three-point shot. It would solve some of the problems the Clippers have had offensively, while continue rounding out Griffin’s overall game.

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