I think he hit one last year in his rookie season to beat the Bucks to end the 15 game losing streak but I might be dreaming that.
Actually Horry's stats were not much better than Griffin's. Horry averaged 10-12 points, 5 rebounds, about 1 block and 1.5 steals. Horry also wasn't physically overmatched like Griffin is, but he also had a superstar (Hakeem) who was willing to pass him the ball and get him easy baskets. He had so many nice dunks after cutting to the basket and getting a pass from Dream.
Talk about raising the bar! IMHO Yao will not come close to 4 apg. Sure, he's a great passer, but a lot of his passes will be caught and passed again or, if they are shot, you can expect at least a few of them to be misses. As for Eddie ... apparently, he's been sharing his stash with you. A very successful season should be along the lines of: 12-13 ppg; 8-9 rpg; and 2-3 bpg. He won't be the first, second, or even third option on offense, so you don't need him scoring much more than that. Assists should be a non-factor in judging his success, because you should not expect him to be a playmaker.
Well, I'll give you this: Eddie has given himself a head start on Most Improved Player for next year . . . by sucking this year.
Just to take some numbers from years 1 and 2 and extrapolate into year 3: EG shot 36.6% his first year and 40% his second. Assume a 4% improvement in his shooting percentage his third year, about the same as year 1 to 2. Last year EG took about 678 shots. If EG takes 680 shots next year and hits 44% of them, then he'll make 299 shots. If 200 of those shots are 3 pointers and 67 of those are made (33% average), then he scores on the field: 299*2 + 67 = 665 points in the year. He went to the line 86 times his first year, 94 times his second year, so in his third year, lets give him 8 more attempts and that would lead to 102 attempts at the line. Assume a 75% average and you get 76.5 points. Round up to 77 points at the line. 665 + 77 points = 742 points. 742 points / 77 games = 9.64 ppg. That's what we'll get from EG if he improves at his current rate. Assume 150 offensive rebounds and 350 defensive rebounds for 500 in the season. This would be an improvement about the same as his year 1 to year 2 improvement. Divided by 77 that gives us 6.49 rebounds per game. Assume say, 100 assists, 60 steals, 125 blocks. 70 turnovers. Assume he gets all this in 1900 minutes... Ok, what does his efficiency per 48 minutes look like? (299*2 + 67 + 500 + 100 + 60 + 125 - (680 - 299) -70) / (1900/48) = 25.24 That's not bad. That's in the range of Brian Grant and Vlade Divac. About 40th in the league. That's also in the range of Kelvin Cato, who had a 25.64 ER/48 mins this year. It's also higher than Steve Francis's ER/48, which was 24.98. What this suggests is that steady, reasonable improvement from Eddie Griffin would make him a productive and useful role player. His stat line wouldn't seem very impressive but he'd be better than most NBA players at this point. Dave.
Dont get down on Eddie Griffin! I know he has a long way to go and you never know just how far he can go! His game development this last season said three things to me:- 1) He didnt have a realy serious off season last year! He should stay in Houston and not go back to Philly. Here he can catch up on all that he needs to . 2) The in season coaching was poor and did not make a concentrated effort to develop his game! 3) The lack of TEAM GAME did nothing to encourage his game, also no plays set up for Eddie. Unless we get the chance for the Clippers Elton Brand and Griffin needs to be used in a package deal, we should expect Griffin to develop and get better. It is unfair to expect him to be a Star,but you never know! I expect 15pts 10rbs 3bl in a couple more years!
