According to ESPN’s well-known basketball media personality Adrian Wojnarowski, the Celtics released guard Denzel Valentine to vacate a spot on the preseason 20-man roster. The team is expected to sign veteran Blake Griffin with a one-year fully guaranteed contract. .
As soon as the news came out, it aroused outside discussion. It is not surprising that Griffin, who has entered the end of his playing career, joined the championship favorite Celtic, looking forward to holding the gold cup, but Dwight Howard, LaMarcus Aldridge, DeMarcus Cousins and Carmelo Anthony, etc. All-star veteran, still up for sale in the free market, why can Griffin be favored by the Celtics?
Compared to the striker gap Inside players are even more stretched
When Danilo Gallinari represented Italy in the World Cup men’s basketball European preliminaries this summer and suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the knee, many people thought that the body was similar,Anthony, who is more efficient in scoring, would be the perfect replacement。
The third and fourth positions are indeed Celtic. In recent years, personnel scheduling has been relatively stretched. However, most of the front and back swingmen in the team can be qualified for more than two positions, although Celtic does not have a regular power forward. , but Jayson Tatum and Grant Williams are both able to support the 4, so for the Celtics, the forward manpower should be reasonably good.
In contrast, Celtic’s need for elders seems to be more urgent.Starting center Robert Williams III recently underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and is expected to take 8-12 weeks to recover. During the offseason, the Celtics also sent backup center Daniel Theis in the Malcolm Brogdon trade. Al Horford is also 36 years old and is unlikely to play more than 30 minutes per game. At present, Luke Kornet and Noah Vonleh, the two senior players who have non-guaranteed contracts, do not have much experience in competitions, so inside players have become the focus of Celtic’s reinforcement.
Although Griffin is not a center by the traditional definition, he is no stranger to playing the five position. According to statistics from Basketball-Reference.com, Griffin played as a center regarding 84% of the time last season, creating a career high. . More importantly, his function and mobility fit the Celtics’ needs better than Howard, Aldridge or Cousins.
Blake GriffinHow can it help Celtic?
Due to the scheduling arrangements of Nets head coach Steve Nash, Griffin’s playing space in the Nets was greatly limited last season, and he was often faced with DNP by the coaching team. Rebounds and 1.9 assists were both career lows. However, converting his numbers to Per 36 Min. is like another Horford, as shown in the table below.
Not only the points, rebounds, assists, but also steals and assist turnovers are very similar to Horford, except for the shooting percentage is slightly worse, from the book results, it can be expected that Griffin will seamlessly make up when Horford is off the court. Vacancy, to maintain the operation of the tactical system.
| player | points per game | rebounds per game | assists per game | steals per game | turnovers per game | field goal percentage | three-point shooting |
| Blake Griffin | 13.5 | 8.6 | 3.9 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 42.5% | 26.2% |
| Al Horford | 12.6 | 9.5 | 4.2 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 46.7% | 33.2% |
From the style of play, Griffin also has a high degree of compatibility with the Celtics.
The Celtics are a team that puts a lot of emphasis on the flow of the ball. Last season, the team ranked 12th and 2nd in the league in passing and secondary assists per game.
Although in the impression of the outside world, it seems that Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown often see the ball alone. In fact, according to the official website data, except for Tatum and Dennis Schröder, who was traded and left in the middle of the season, no other player in the Celtic team played more than 10% of the time.It is obvious that Celtic created the ideal shot gap by sharing the ball, which may be the main reason why the team’s offensive rating (ORtg) tied for 8th in the league last season.。