Griffin goes 1st in guard-heavy draft
NEW YORK – Blake Griffin was the consensus No. 1 pick.
The Los Angeles Clippers started Thursday night’s draft with the obvious choice: Griffin, the only player considered a sure thing in a class full of question marks.
Griffin was the consensus college player of the year after leading the nation with 14.4 rebounds per game while averaging 22.7 points last season for Oklahoma. The Clippers said they would take the forward with the top pick just hours after they won the draft lottery last month, and never considered changing their minds.
“The fact is we’re getting an incredible player, incredible person, an impeccable work ethic and a guy that we plan on having in L.A. for many years to come,” Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said. “He’s going to be a great, exciting fit for our ballclub.”
The Clippers are hoping Griffin turns out better than their last No. 1 overall pick. They opened the 1998 draft by taking center Michael Olowokandi, a bust who is out of the league.
“Hopefully, I can bring something they don’t have,” Griffin said. “I know they have a lot of great players, but at the same time I’m excited about the opportunity and hopefully I can bring something to the table that they don’t have or maybe they need.”
The Memphis Grizzlies then grabbed Connecticut center Hasheem Thabeet, a dominant rebounder and shot blocker who doesn’t have strong offensive skills.
After the two big men, the rest of the first round was dominated by guards – with the Minnesota Timberwolves going for a few of them – with at least 10 players selected who could play the point. Seven guards went in the first 10 selections.
The Timberwolves snapped up Spanish teenager Ricky Rubio at No. 5, a pick they acquired from Washington earlier this week, before going for Syracuse’s Jonny Flynn with the next pick.
It was thought Rubio might go as high as No. 2, but that never worked out for Memphis. Instead the Grizzlies went with Thabeet, the 7-foot-3 native of Tanzania who switched from soccer to basketball just a few years ago. He has rapidly developed his defensive skills, but still has work to go on the other end.
“The whole season I spent working on my offense and working with so many different people, and to me this is a great opportunity to come out here and go play,” Thabeet said.
Rubio has to pay a multimillion dollar buyout to his Spanish club team to get out of his contract. He said Wednesday his mother doesn’t like cold weather, so he sounded lukewarm about heading to Minneapolis.
“I have to think about that, because I’m just three minutes from a Timberwolves player,” he said. “So I’m going to talk with my agent about that and we are going to see.”
Oklahoma City took high-scoring Arizona State guard James Harden with the No. 3 pick and Sacramento followed by drafting Memphis freshman Tyreke Evans – who like Griffin was wearing a purple tie. So was Stephen Curry, the NCAA scoring leader from Davidson who went at No. 7 to Golden State.
Jordan Hill (New York), Demar DeRozan (Toronto) and Brandon Jennings (Milwaukee) rounded out the top 10, but Jennings didn’t come out to don his Bucks hat and shake hands with commissioner David Stern. His agent, Bill Duffy, released a statement earlier in the day saying he had advised Jennings and his family not to attend the draft and wait in the green room because he was unsure of his client’s draft position.
However, Jennings – the point guard who skipped college to spend a year playing in Europe – came out from behind the stage, wearing the Milwaukee cap, to greet Stern and wave to the fans after the 14th pick was announced.
A run of forwards followed before Philadelphia grabbed another point guard, UCLA’s Jrue Holiday, who was considered a top 10 pick but tumbled to No. 17. Minnesota followed with its third point guard of the draft, Ty Lawson of national champion North Carolina – though he was shipped to the Denver Nuggets in yet another deal.
Atlanta grabbed another playmaker, Wake Forest’s Jeff Teague, at No. 19. Utah kept up the run by selecting Virginia Commonwealth’s Eric Maynor.