In a recent press release, veteran point guard Andre Miller was quoted as saying, "I'm not a hater. But he hasn't made anyone better. They are giving young guys too much respect,'' and, "It's all publicity and hype...The league don't appreciate the blue-collar workers."
Miller is basically calling out Blake Griffin for not making his teammates better.
I am not going to go into how Griffin is a great passer and playmaker. I am not breaking down his stats or anything—this is just Griffin beyond the numbers.
I am focusing on how he saved Baron Davis.
Davis' numbers are definitely down since last year. I saw Davis on opening night for the Los Angeles Clippers and he was shooting just as much as he usually did and he was still the same selfish, scoring point guard that he was the year before.
Despite Griffin catching two ridiculous alley-oops and putting back two insane dunks off of rebounds, Davis was playing like he wasn't even there. Davis was playing like he was the best player on the court, and that was in no way true.
Davis went down with an injury and he saw his minutes go to rookie Eric Bledsoe. Bledsoe was playing great basketball and, although the Clippers were still playing like one of the worst teams in the NBA, it was obvious that Bledsoe had earned the starting job over the aging Davis.
Davis' place on the roster was seeming more and more less secure by the day. The only things keeping him from being moved were, 1) His huge contract, but more importantly, 2) his terrible play. He was posting some of the worst numbers in comparison to other NBA starting point guards.
When Davis came back from his injury, he was playing backup to Bledsoe. In the month of December, he was getting 25 MPG, but was posting his season-high in assists per game (7.1). He soon regained the starting spot due to his new style of play.
Davis started to realize that this is the most talented basketball player he has ever played with. Instead of shooting contested three-pointers and looking for his shot first, Davis became a pass-first point guard. He has even began to get a little too pass-happy, throwing Griffin alley-oops from literally anywhere on the floor.
In that month of December where they had seven wins, they followed it up with a January where they had nine wins. Davis' unselfishness was a big reason why. He followed up the December campaign with an even better January.
He posted the same assist numbers, but he scoring went up from nine PPG to 15 PPG with an increase of only five MPG. The reason why? He started playing off of Griffin rather than having Griffin play off of him.
Griffin has also gotten better because of Davis' change in play. Griffin has improved every single month of the year. Not only are Griffin and Davis playing better, the team is winning.
Without Griffin, Davis would have never changed his style of play. In a league filled with athletic point guards who can score the basketball, there is no room for a scoring point guard on the tail-end of his career.
Davis changed his game because he understood how great of a player Griffin is.
Because of Griffin, Davis changed his style and saved his career.
