It's premature to have this conversation. EG has not reached his full potential. Richard Jefferson had three yrs in college and is older. Neither has reached their peak but it's unfair to judge EG on two yrs in the pros and one yr in college.
Really? Friday, June 22 Updated: June 25, 11:43 AM ET Griffin's No. 1 problem ... his past By Adrian Wojnarowski Special to ESPN.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As NBA drafts go, there have been few serious No. 1 overall candidates with the unimpressive, unproven history of Eddie Griffin. He had a year of college, presumably a year of growing up, constructing his character and molding his immense talents into a pretty package for the pros. The irony, of course, is his season with Seton Hall turned out to be a lesson in permissiveness, reinforcing a sense of entitlement and creating more questions than answers about Griffin. Want to take him No. 1, Michael Jordan, well take your chances. If this kid has a love for the game, it's hard to see. If this kid has a desire to win, it's impossible to prove. All we know for sure, is this: He has immense talent, and a belief that basketball owes him. Welcome to 2001. Welcome to basketball's troubling future. Eddie Griffin's talents are unquestioned, but his questionable attitude overshadows his talent. One year as a college freshmen taught Griffin there was nothing he couldn't do and still be forgiven because of a 6-foot-9 frame just oozing with talent. He discovered he could threaten a teammate, Ty Shine, in a January huddle, sucker punch him in the locker room and absolutely walk on it. Tommy Amaker, fearful of frightening off future blue-chip recruits, gave Griffin just a one-game suspension for a premeditated punch --- the kind of punishment that usually goes with missing a class, or showing up late for a practice. This wasn't exactly the mentoring Amaker promised Griffin's late brother, Marvin Powell, when he recruited Griffin out of Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia as the nation's top prospect. Let's see, what else? Well, Griffin turned terribly selfish for the Pirates, discovering he could freelance within the offense without consequence. He could take wild shots, play defense by just swinging his long arms to block shots and never, ever hear a disparaging word out of his coach's mouth. His team could lose, but the best player was forever protected as Amaker privately stacked the blame on the upperclassmen. "When we started losing, a lot of people just said, 'Forget it, I'm going to get mine,'" Griffin said during the season, failing to mention he was typically the first one in line to get his. .... ...Adrian Wojnarowski is a columnist for The Record (Northern New Jersey) and a regular contributor to ESPN.com. Yes, Im glad he's no longer punching out teammates.
obviously the trade worked out great for the Rockets, as it contributed to landing Yao. and in the mean time we wait to see if Eggie has the long term jermaine pay-off. But why just because they play for another team, do with have dismiss the talents, effort, work ethic and performance of Jefferson and Collins so quickly. Sure they have Kidd and Scott, but these two had seriously improved their games in aspects that Kidd makes no difference. Jefferson outside game is dramatically improved, does Kidd do that, no, Jefferson works damn hard to improve his individual game, esp outside shooting and be a better player. Same applies to Collins, his defense, boxing out and rebounding are all much improved and he actually has limited post moves now, again something that his improvement and not due to Kidd. Seems like to many of us only ever watch the highlights seeing the Kidd passes to them for finishes, they are now solid players on their and Jefferson in particular is turning into a good all around player, not just the perceived fatsbreak dunker. I wish more of the rockets had their work ethic and resulting level of improvement.
All this is because we did not (or have not) make the playoffs folks. Wait 'till next year when we finally get back to the dance with Eddie as an important piece. In spite of what Collins and Jefferson have done so far in the Association, I STILL DO NOT WANT THEM - Do you think they would have been a good fit for us? Common use your heads folk... It was a great great trade - I was at the airport that night when I heard the trade - I was pumped up, galvanized and stoked. I was really excited to have Eddie and still am. Perspective folks........perspective. Please lets stop bringing up this topic come what may!!!
I'd take Jefferson and Collins for Griffin and Cato in a heartbeat, if the Nets were insane and foolish enough to make such an offer, which they aren't.
let's drop this please. let's stop living in the past and just look what's ahead on the rocs this coming season. let's try to look at the things the rocs needs improvement. let's not cry about ohh, i wish we havent traded EG for richard jefferson a few years ago. let's just go look forward and not backwards peeps!
Just give up. I am sure when Griffin's 30 years old, there would still be people arguing that he has better potential blah blah blah. What's the point? No point.
Huh? No, people aren't going to be saying that when he's thirty, but they might say it after he just turned 21 and would now only be finishing his junior year in college. See the difference? So, you believe once a player reaches legal drinking age he has hit the wall?
My biggest problem with Griffin is he fits the profile of draft busts. What is the 1 common denominator of highly drafted players who don't pan out? Laziness and a lack of passion for the game. The draft has been littered with talented players who just don't care. This is a scouting report before the NBA DRAFT Eddie Griffin, Power forward SCHOOL: Seton Hall HEIGHT: 6-9 WEIGHT: 220 DRAFTED: No. 7 by New Jersey SKINNY: Considered by several experts as a candidate to contribute a little right now and a great deal later. Averaged 17.8 points, 10.8 rebounds and a national-best 4.4 blocks per game as a freshman. Made just 42 percent of his shots from the field, including 35 percent from 3-point range. Also punched a teammate for the second year in a row, but has begun to erase any bad-guy perception during fireside chats with NBA personnel folks. Griffin seems a bit short and light to play the four spot, but many scouts don't envision him as a small forward. PROFESSIONAL OPINION: "He scares me a little because he doesn't appear to have that fire," said one NBA assistant coach. "That may be deceptive, but he can come across as lazy. There aren't a lot of gears to his game. And I'm not sure where he plays. He's about 6-8, which is short for the four spot. But you look at Shawn Marion, Lamar Odom, Vince Carter and some of the other threes; I don't think he has the wheels to stay with those guys. He's also not very good at putting the ball on the floor and getting his own shot. And he's pretty thin right now if you put him at power forward. But he can really shoot it and with range. He's a good, not great, athlete and is good on the box going over his left shoulder for the jump hook or a nice turn-around jumper." In 2 years of basketball he has played more minutes than most of the players drafted ahead of him and yet has shown some of the least improvement. He continues to settle for the outside shot, continues to get run over on defense relying solely on his shot blocking ability, and still has no low post moves. In 2 seasons despite playing 20+ minutes, has he improved his dribbling? can he get his own shot? has his shot selection improved? has he shown more intensity? Like I said, if you don't absolutely love the game at 19, 20, 21, why would you at 25. And this is with a laid back coach like Rudy T. Imagine what will happen when someone like Brown takes over. My only hope will be that Brown scares the crap out of Eddie and Eddie responds. If he does, this team could be amazing. If he doesn't, we need to get rid of him immediately before he becomes totally worthless. If the Rockets can't tell if Eddie's improved by training camp, someone's falling asleep at the wheel. This is why we need to get our coach ASAP. To meet with Eddie, come up with a plan, and follow his progress.
It is a little disconcerting to see EG behave so stoically on the court. It would be ok if he was at least physically dominating defensively, such as the way Posey can with his high-energy play.. or to be that silent-assassin type who blocks shots from out of nowhere all the time.. or if he were trying to become a banger on the boards.. Dennis Rodman was certainly not physically much larger than EG .. I think Eddie came into the league EXTREMELY aware of his 'soiled reputation' as a confrontational hot-head.. I don't know what his family background was really, but I suspect that he was hyper-aware that he was going to be making an absurd amount of money, and he appears to have made a conscious decision to keep his emotions under control at all times.. while that's admirable, it may also have been his fiery emotions that gave him the drive to excel on the court.. dunno really, but maybe so.. And Eddie did in fact show improvement on his low-post game last year.. not saying all that much, because he is still pretty raw.. but his physical potential alone has allowed him to be an NBA player at age 19 - not a whole heck of a lot of guys can say that - and the skills and basketball savvy will just have to come with experience. So, with a coaching philosophy that was aimed solely at taking advantage of whatever EG could effectively do NOW - occasional 3-pt shooting, some blocked shots - and not necessarily centered around spending every waking moment in developing his skills for the future, AND playing on the same team with SF and Mobley (neither of whom will ever be confused with John Stockton or Jason Kidd in regards to making those players around them better), it's just not all that surprising that EG has been slow to develop. I mean really - when had the Rockets EVER had to deal with a player that young? That's the main reason they passed on Rashard after all - his age. Rudy liked guys like Clyde, Pippen, Barkley, Hakeem, etc , guys he didn't have to teach how to play the game. Personally, I think a change in coaches is going to do wonders for EG and the rest of this team as well. Nothing against Rudy, but he quite reasonably expected these kids to behave like professional men, and they just are not - yet. Maybe Brown or Dunleavy will be able to get them to understand the things they need to understand. Whatever, but don't lose faith in EG yet, he will be one of those guys who seems to have come out of nowhere by about his 4th year or so, you watch. ciao
I'll still go along with this, I guess, in part because finding a stud PF is harder that finding a stud SF. Good small forwards and shooting guards grow on trees. Here is my view of the difficulty of finding good players: Centers the hardest, point guards next, power forwards third. SFs and SGs are last. If you don't believe me, look at the players that have come out of the CBA that end up sticking around a while in the NBA. Most all of them are SF/SGs. So I do not lose much sleep over not having Jefferson. Especially since we probably would not have Yao now because we wouldn't have tanked so deeply. And having a good PF is even more important in the Western Conference.
