I'm a huge Eddie Griffin fan, but this guy will never realize his tremendous potential until he gets his head on straight.
Last year's summer, in answering the question on the highest ceiling of potential our players had, I said EG had the tools to be as good as Dream. I didn't want to trade EG for Rashard either. What a difference a year has made. And to think that the best PF we have now is Cato is just unreal.
Moral victories are getting old, but this one was a little different. At least it was exciting! Despite missing most of their regular starting line up and playing the two-time world champs, Houston managed to keep the game in question until the final seconds losing 107-101, their 15th straight. This was a game where everything smelled like a loss. The Rocks were without Steve Francis, Glen Rice and Kenny Thomas. They are already missing Mo Taylor for the year and Cuttino Mobley is running on two flat tires. But, it gets worse. Mobley had a horrible first half going 0-3 with no points, finally forced to the bench with over 8 minutes left in the half with his third foul. Moochie Norris picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter and Oscar Torres was hobbled through most of the third and fourth with a sore ankle after coming down on it awkwardly. How in the hell did this team manage to not get blown out by LA? Well, for one, Kobe Bryant shot 9-26 from the floor and Shaquille O'Neal had a fairly quiet game. But, the story wasn't the poor play of the Lakers. Ladies and gentleman, please welcome Eddie Griffin to the league! The Rocket rookie had his coming out party with career highs in pretty much every category finishing with 25 points on 10-18 shooting from the field and 3-7 from the three point line, 13 rebounds and 4 blocked shots in 40 minutes of action. The kid was awesome. It was hard not to imagine just how good he is going to get considering he is only 19 years old. Maybe it was the national television audience or just the fact that he got big minutes, but Griffin looks for real. Norris even with the foul trouble pitched in a double double of his own with 15 points and 10 assists and Mobley came alive with all 18 of his points in the second half. Walt Williams added 14 and Tierre Brown played important minutes with 12 points. The Rockets also played turnover-free basketball for the most part committing only 6 turnovers while the Lakers had 12. Well, that's the good news. The bad news, besides the loss, was the fact that they made too many mistakes down the stretch and let Derek Fisher absolutely go OFF on them for 23 points on seven three pointers. Add Devon George's clutch play down the stretch and ten missed freethrows by the Rockets and you have the ballgame. The continual dribbling of Norris and crazy shots by Mobley remain a concern. Mobley got absolutely smothered by Bryant in the first half and his only saving grace in the second half was that the same wild, off-balance shots he was throwing up in the first half were going in. Norris bogged the offense down by dribbling too much as the Lakers overplayed the pick and roll. The ball actually moved better and the team looked better when Mobley and Norris were on the bench. Moral victories suck, but the Rockets may have to endure a few more. The Bucks come to town Saturday followed by Phoenix, both playoff bound teams. Thomas will be back for both, but the real opportunity for a win could come on the 28th at Golden State as Francis may make his return. If the Rockets can continue to play this well and get some injured bodies back, they could still salvage the season. We'll see.
I think we should have signed him. The worst case scenario is that he doesn't want to play basketball anymore - in that case, you just say oh well and pay him the extra 2 or 3 million for the 4th year and then leave him be. The best case scenario is that he gets on proper medication, cures his depression, and lives up to his potential as described in the above chronicle article. I mean, the guy was depressed - that is like a get out of jail free card as far as I'm concerned for all the lack of development, etc. that has plagued Griffin. Griffin obviously has a passion for the game - everybody in the NBA has it except for maybe S. Bradley. And Griffin was very good in college too; great players have passion for the game. The death of his brother and the ensuing depression caused him to lose some of that passion, but the kid is still very young, and if he could get his mental state back to when he wasn't depressed, he could still live up to his potential or at least part of it.
But not extending his contract does not mean we will lose him. We could have the best of both scenarios...do not extend his contract so as to send the wrong message, but have him recover in time to play meaningful minutes this year, after which he could resign with us. It's one of two risks: a) extend, and have him drop out of basketball for good, thus wasting 3 million or so, or b) don't extend, and have him recover to sign somewhere else.
Though I've dogged on Eddie as much as anyone the last year or so, I'd still love to see this happen. Problem is, I don't think it ever will. This kid is done. He hasn't been so much as a shade of what was expected of him in two seasons. You have to think that the check-signers with the Rockets have noticed this, and have watched him practice, and have been burned by his no-shows. He pulled the same crap last year and gave a ludicrous excuse about his dog biting a neighbor that was proven false. Then he did it again this year: three times. $2 million and change is still a lot of money. I don't think that the team expects Eddie to shape it up. I think they expect him to burn up and never be heard from again. I think they're finally cutting their losses and moving on, tired of the bother. It sucks for sure, but that's how businesses are run.
That is pretty mind-blowing to read, isn't it? All that potential and it comes to this. It's hard to believe we didn't extend him. Things may be worse than we've heard, but they'd have to be pretty damn bad not to lock him up another year. Unreal.
Sane - Disagree with your assessment. A little perspective broadening may be needed... 1) Season 4 for Griffin was $2.9m. 2) By not extending, the Rockets do not have to protect Griffin in the expansion draft. Effectively, an "extra" slot. 3) If it is ever established that the Rox want to take another chance on Griffin, they have multiple methods... * Bird Rights with a contract starting @ 112.5% of YR 1 Rookie scale. * Any portion of a ~$4.9m MLE Either of which (depending upon market condtions) could easily be less than the $2.9m Yr 4 Rookie scale contract.
If Griffin were to recover, I'd want to lock him up for the 4th year. I'm worried that he will feel hurt or betrayed or whatever that we didn't extend him and then he'll go to another team. Hopefully it won't be the case, but by extending his contract, it would show loyalty to Griffin while he's going through some tough times.
It is good to let him go. If he got picked up other team that's even better. He needs to avoid Houston and his "friends" here. If EG stays in Houston, he will never reach his potential.
Do you guys remember???... after that game with the Lakers (the recap was posted above), EG had been coming off of about 8 or 9 straight increasingly impressive games. At this point, some reporters were saying that in 2 or 3 years, EG would undoubtedly be the best player on our team and a main reason we would be "back in contention". He was even drawing a lot of comparisons to TD. Amazing how things can change in a year and a half... Everything I feel about Griffin:
RASHEED WALLACE??? Are you nuts? He's the antithisis of Rasheed, NO PASSION whatsovever. Rasheed has emotional problems and outbursts yes, troubled yes, weedsmoker, yes. But Passionate, brings it every game, he may miss shots, haggle w/ refs, but I've never seen him take off games. Eddie is just takes off all the time games alot, yeah you see 'sparks' of defensive fire sometimes with blocks, but in reality, his so-called potential isn't all that...Juwan Howard had alot of 'potential' too, Stanley Roberts, Christian Lattener, Quame Brown, all those guys- I mean potential is SQUAT if you do nothing with it. I personally fail to see all this Offensive potential you guys see??? He's a Tweener- that doesn't wanna bulk up? Has an Average post-up game that can only get a little better. His shot is Flat and line-drived, and does not have the PASSION or work-ethic to improve??? Emotionally He's worse than Bison Dele was RIP, Just too much baggage. He's really just an Good Athelete and a slightly above average player with a couple good skills, blocking shots and pretty good reaction to the ball. And quit saying that he's ONLY 21, I think we all know that age has nothing to do with playing pretty good at least half of the time. He's been starting alot of his pro career, and been Pampered by the Coaching staffs at the Rockets. JVG I think was more than patient with Eddie. Just bring your ass to practice or call us, cant even do that, MORAN. That's not exactly someone to Morgage your teams immediate future around, especially when that player has shown complete indifference and abandonment toward the team. Complete Abandonment Guys... Good Move Good Ridince after the Season.
