Midseason Report Card: Blake Griffin

Off topic I know… But if the rumors are true and Ray Allen is on the block, I think the Clippers need to do everything possible including mortgaging draft picks for the next couple of years (which should be low anyway), etc.

The man is in excellent physical shape and would be an upgrade defensively even at his advanced age. Given his lights out shooting from 3 this should be a no brainer if possible. I don’t think any of the other championship contenders could compete with a rotation of Paul, Allen, Butler, Griffin, Jordan, Williams, Martin, Evans and Foye.

Word on the streets is that

Mo Will + Eric Bledsoe + Draft Pick

for

Ray Allen + Mickael Pietrus

is on the table. It’s up to Danny Ainge to take it or leave it.

Word on the streets is that Jordan Brand is drooling at the idea of a Team Jordan starting backcourt of CP3 + Jesus Shuttlesworth.

Blake does have that mentor in K-Mart. K-Mart was basically Blake when he first came into the NBA: an explosive 4 with unmatched athleticism. Microfracture surgery robbed him of his athleticism and K-Mart had to rely on smarts instead of his athleticism. Hopefulyl Blake can develop an old-man game to keep opponents honest and prolong his career. Having that type of game will help him to balance when to use finesse and when to leap over opponents and destroy them.

The hangup for all of the teams wanting to trade for Howard is he says’s he’s not going to sign an extension with any of them until he goes through free agency. None of the teams want to give Orlando much of anything for what could be a half season rental.

The Clippers should get beyond this mental barrier and should make the trade for him anyway . . . Jordan and Mo Williams (and more if necessary, like Butler, Bledsoe, a future #1) for Howard . . . regardless of his not signing with the team until he goes through free agency this summer. It’s a winning scenario for the Clippers:
1. They will win the NBA title this season with Howard.
2. They will far and away be in the best position to get Howard to sign with them during free agency.
3. Even in the unlikely scenario of Howard not signing with the Clippers, what will the Clippers have lost? Jordan? That’s no loss. They can find another center who will want to play with Paul and Griffin who is better than Jordan, and they’ll have plenty of cap space to do it with. So they lose nothing there. And they’ll also have the cap space toreplace Butler if necessary. So they lose nothing there either.

Where is the downside? There is none. So Olshey should do the deal or be fired.