Dunk Base

Whatever higher power is in charge of sports, clearly hates basketball fans.  I woke up this morning to discover that the first overall pick in the 2009 draft, Blake Griffin, is going to be sidelined for six weeks with a broken knee cap (and yes, I know the report said up to six weeks, but let’s be honest, it should take all six weeks, of course the Clippers are functionally idiots, so I suppose they could rush him back).  That’s a good chunk of the season missed right there, despite what anyone says.  Not only that, it’s the second time it’s happened to a potentially All World big man and/or superstar in the last three seasons (Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant should really be careful).

Now the point of this isn’t to say that Griffin’s career is over or even his season.  For instance, Brandon Roy missed 25 games his rookie season and still walked away with the Rookie of the Year Award.  I actually still don’t think anyone will necessarily challenge him for R.O.Y. (which isn’t to diminish the other rookies, I just think Griffin is that much better).  What this does do is deny NBA fans from getting their first glimpse of Griffin and makes the opening night game on TNT (well, the second one anyway), almost entirely unwatchable (for me anyway).  The main reason that the Clippers were finally interesting that didn’t involve the words “train wreck” was Blake Griffin.  He was giving everyone inside Clipper fandom hope and made everyone in the Basketball world think the Clippers had a chance at the playoffs.  Most importantly was the effect Griffin was having on Baron Davis, who finally playing active, unselfish, and motivated basketball again.  Knowing that he can run again and be able to throw the ball in Griffin’s general direction with confidence that 99% of the time it’s going to end up in a dunk is making him happy (and a happy Baron Davis is good for basketball, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise).

This shouldn’t be quite so big a problem in and of itself.  As basketball fans we could just happily wait for Griffin to get healthy and enjoy the other young up and coming big men in the league getting ready to dominate (for lack of a better term).  There’s one problem with that line of thinking though, there’s really only one currently residing in the NBA (Dwight Howard).  Chris Bosh and Amar’e Stoudemire are still relatively young and good but both them have clearly reached a plateau in their careers.  Bosh is a solid All Star and an occasional All NBAer but can’t really lead a team passed the “decent playoff contender” level.  Amar’e is an explosive scorer, who has been able to add new wrinkles to his arsenal, but refuses to be anywhere near capable on defense.  Both of them are who they are and that really changes once you reach the point of no return (I suppose something weird could happen to both of them, but when does that happen?).  Who does that leave us with?  Al Jefferson is secretly on the same plane as Bosh and Amar’e (plus he’s hurt too).  Al Horford looks like he has the potential but he’s either not up for making the leap or is being held back in a perimeter oriented offense (or more likely both).  Greg Oden is waiting in the wings of injury recovery to see if he can actually build off a relatively injury free season.  And Andrew Bynum may not be in the same boat as Oden, but they’re paddling in the same small body of water.  Both of them clearly have the potential to change the big man landscape but for every forward step they take, they take two back.  Finally we have Brook Lopez, Kevin Love (whose injured until god knows when), and Jason Thompson, but none of them are really good enough to pull their teams out of their current nothingness (and I’m not sure how much hope I have that they ever will be).

This is why Blake Griffin was/is important and why basketball fans needed him to get off to a fast start.  They need confirmation that there is tangible progression in the ranks of NBA big man.  The downfall of the NBA big man has been a pet argument for a certain contingent of fans over the last few years (or the last decade and a half really).  This hasn’t held much weight because even though the position has slightly changed, Duncan, Garnett, and Nowitzki held down the fort just as well as generation of bigs.  But last season changed things.  Duncan started off as strong as or stronger than in previous seasons and while Garnett has seemingly lost something of a step, the Celtics were primed for another title run, making him as relevant as always.  Because of injuries to Duncan and Garnett, leaving Nowitzki the only dominant big with a clean bill of health as the season ended, there were major doubts about where they were headed for the rest of their careers.  Meaning that with Duncan and Garnett fading, the door was left wide open for Griffin to come in and assume the mantle.  He was more than willing and primed to do so.  He was the first big man to come along in years to have the skill, the feel, the athleticism, and the swagger to finally let Duncan and Garnett fade into the sunset.  It’ll give Nowitzki a chance to slow his career down without the constant barrage of “what happened” articles when his inevitable decline happens without a reasonable big to take his place.  We needed Griffin to get off on the right foot because there needed to be hope for the future of the NBA big in a real way instead of a theoretical way.  The injury though leaves us to wonder that much longer, which is never a good thing when there’s nothing else to fill the void except for knee jerk reactions and half baked ideas.

Thankfully Griffin has shown the ability to explode on the court after coming back from an injury, so this might all be fretting for nothing.  But still, it’s a rather annoying turn to the start of the season and another shot to the NBA big.  If he doesn’t come back strong to start then fans will continue to fit square pegs in round holes (something that’s a bit of a pastime), waiting for the next dominant big to come along.  I will continue to hold onto cautious optimism.