Will It Be Too Late for Clippers' Blake Griffin To Win Rookie of the Year?

This year's rookie class was one which was seen by me as being one that was better than it was given credit for at the time of the draft. Everyone knew it was going to be rich in point guards, but it wasn't known just how rich some of those point guards would be. Other players have started stepping it up after slow starts as well. This leaves us to wonder if, given that he is going to be out into January, Blake Griffin will even have a chance to win the rookie of the year award.

It's not rare for a player to win the rookie of the year award without playing the full season. Brandon Roy played 57 games in winning the 2007 Rookie of the Year award, Damon Stoudamire missed 12 games the year he won the award, and so did Grant Hill. Patrick Ewing won the award while only playing 50 games in the season. There are other players who have missed a noticeable piece of the season who have still be able to win the award.

In Griffin's case, just throwing a date out there, let's say he returns for their game on Jan. 6 against the Lakers. If he doesn't miss another game for the rest of the year, he's going to play in 49 games this season. That's fewer games than any other player who has won the award so far, although it's only one game away from Patrick Ewing. Ewing won the award over the likes of Xavier McDaniel and Karl Malone, who missed a combined one game that season.

As for Griffin, Top-Two rookies so far this season are Brandon Jennings and Tyreke Evans. Brandon Jennings got out to a scorching start to this season, but has since cooled off. The drop in numbers are likely a combination of him just being hot to start the season and a bit of a slump he's going through right now.

As his numbers are now are probably the best indicator of what he is as an actual player. Tyreke Evans got off to a slow start, but when Kevin Martin went down with injury, it was Evans who stepped it up big time, and is now looking like the player to beat for the Rookie of the Year award. The quality of these two players actually looks very similar, as a whole (not the actual numbers, but the actual quality that they show in the player, just want to make that clear), as the quality of Xavier McDaniel and Karl Malone's rookie seasons.

Patrick Ewing put up 20 points and nine rebounds his rookie season. Blake Griffin would have to do at least that in order to win the rookie of the year award, and that's assuming he comes back in early January. If he comes back late in the month, then forget about it. Griffin will have to be very strong right out the gates as soon as he does come back though. Playing alongside Chris Kaman and Marcus Camby, and likely with limited minutes at the start will really make it difficult for him to play like he would need to in order to win the Rookie of the Year award.

It will probably at least take 20 points and 10 rebounds per game along with good percentages and other good areas of his game for Blake Griffin to win the rookie of the year award. He has just missed too many games so far this season to really have a great shot at the award. While it doesn't look likely that he will win the award, it isn't entirely impossible given precedent.