I checked up some career stats on a couple of players who turned out more than OK but who I remembered as not lighting it up from the outset: <b>Gary Paton and Dirk Nowitzki</b>. Payton averaged 7.2 and 9.4 PPG his first two years in the league. I seem to remember talk of him being a bust. He's busted a few people but he's not a bust. Nowitzki only averaged 8.2 PPG and 3.4 PPG his first year in the league at age 20. He only played about half of the games, so I'm not sure if there was an injury factor or not. But he did pick up the pace: 17.5/6.5 then 21.8/9.2 then 23.1/9.5!!!!!! I'd say that Eddie is doing okay for a 19 YO kid with just one year of college ball. Dirk's experience of international basketball from (what?) age 16 on I'm sure prepared him better than a year at Seton Hall did for Griffin. Plus EG plays for a very conservative coach. I think the guy will do okay. Can you guys/gals think of any other examples of guys that started slow but went on to have great NBA careers?
I hate to make the comparison, but Garnett is a classic example. At first he came off the bench and avg 7pts and something like 6 rebs, for the last 30 games of the season in which he started, he avg 17pts 10rebs. That is what I see Griffin doing if Rudy just go ahead and be real about it. The more time he gets, the quicker he progresses, the better he'll become. He did it with Mobley after he drafted Francis, he should do it now. Did anyone think Mobley would be a better pg than Francis? He played pg, then we made a trade for Francis and Mobley went to the bench. The same should be done for Griffin and Thomas.
No one can really expect Griffin to dominate now. But a couple of years from now, he will overtake Francis as the primary option on this team and will be a superstar.
Griffin is the next Kobe/Garnett hes just that damn talented! Rockets knew what they were doing when we traded for him!
I don't know if he'll overtake Francis as far as go to guy, but its a nice option to think about. Ideally, I would like Francis at about 20pts,Griffin at about 18pts, Mobley at 16pts and another guy at about 16pts per. I'm not talking about this yr, I'm talking about when this team is set and ready. Realistically, we're not going to get a center that can dominate, but what we can do is have 4 legit scorer's and that can make up for the zero in the middle. Now if we can somehow get a Ratliff or Jackson type player, those points can come at the expense of the bench and the other 16 pt per game scorer. No matter how it works, having 4 guys at 16pts per or better greatly increases the chances of you winning without a big time center.
