Despite Positive Offseason, L.A. Clippers Need Blake Griffin More Than Ever

Even with all their newfound depth, the Los Angeles Clippers still need Blake Griffin—just not for the first 82 games of the year.

The Clippers are clearly more talented in the summer of 2015 than they were last year. Look at some of the names they brought in over the offseason: Josh Smith, Lance Stephenson, Paul Pierce, Wesley Johnson, Cole Aldrich, Pablo Prigioni. And heck, they may be on the verge of making another move, given Jamal Crawford's insecurity within the organization.

Because of all that help, they won't have to depend on Griffin as much as they did a year ago. But his importance to their title chances remains the same.

Even in 2014-15, when the Clips had no more than six legitimate rotation players throughout the regular season, the team held on strong with Griffin out of the lineup. L.A. lost him from early February to mid-March to an elbow injury yet went 9-6 over that stretch. 

Actually, that wasn't the only time the team didn't have full-throttle Griffin. The power forward cruised through the regular season even when he was healthy.

He basically stopped rebounding with the ferocity we're used to seeing. Whether you want to measure it with rebounds per game, boards per 36 minutes or rebound rate, it was his worst season on the glass of his career. (That can partly be explained by DeAndre Jordan's propensity to steal boards and the Clippers' desire to give them to him so he doesn't get upset with them, as they've teased him about in the past).

Last year, Griffin averaged 7.6 rebounds per game or 7.8 per 36 minutes (12.1 percent rebound rate). That's substantially down from his career numbers of 9.7 per game and 9.8 per 36 minutes (15.8 percent rebound rate). 

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

He stopped charging at the rim, too. The whole "Blake doesn't dunk anymore!" narrative began after just a few games last season and continued into the playoffs. And unlike many criticisms of Griffin's game in the past, this observation actually had some legitimate information to back it up.

He settled for more jumpers than ever before. Nearly 38 percent of his field-goal attempts came from 16 feet out to the three-point line during 2014-15. His previous career high was 26.7 percent, which came the previous season. 

In a piece at the Players' Tribune back in February, Griffin wrote a bit about why he wasn't recklessly barreling into the paint anymore:

"

My first few years in the league, I was relying on my athleticism to get me by, because that’s what got me to the NBA. The problem with that is, you end up getting really, really tired by February. My rookie year I tried to get out of bed on a road trip near the end of the season and I was like, Am I physically able to walk right now? I went out on the floor that night and ran up and down just trying to look like a real NBA human.

"

Griffin got flak for his changed style. But in the end, he knew himself better than anyone else did. Come playoff time, he wasn't tired. He was ready to go.

He dominated against the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets all the way to per-game averages of 25.5 points, 12.7 rebounds and 6.1 assists in the postseason. He looked as if he was flying out of a cannon on a play-by-play basis. And his style reverted to what it was when he dominated every possession of every regular-season game—in other words, back to what it was when he wasn't as educated or calculated a player.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

Less than 22 percent of his attempts were from 16 feet out to the three-point line, and he made a respectable 42.4 percent of those shots. His number of shots at the rim was more in line with his career rate, too. Even his defense, which seriously regressed from his 2013-14 improvements during the 2014-15 regular season, became far more competent as his effort increased in the playoffs.

The postseason is when minutes go up for starters and the more important players take on bigger roles. The additions of Smith and Pierce can help massage Griffin's regular season, no question. But come the playoffs, the Clippers are still going to need 38 minutes of the same Griffin they got used to this past postseason. He just won't have to do as much.

He won't need to randomly run the point at spots throughout a first-round series. He won't be stuck exhausting himself with 40-plus-minute performances time and again.

But he's still the man the Clips can run the offense through, the one who is essential for grabbing boards, distributing, scoring—basically everything. 

The Clippers can't necessarily predict anymore from Griffin during the upcoming postseason (I think making it into May is a safe assumption for this roster) than they got from him last year. In that sense, a shallower Clippper team needed Griffin more. But this season's squad has different expectations.

Danny Moloshok/Associated Press

We've sort of changed the expectations for last year's squad in retrospect, after it squandered away that 3-1 Western Conference Semifinals lead to the Rockets. But heading into the playoffs, people didn't really suspect the Clips would make much noise, even after a hot finish to the season. Almost no one picked them even to get out of the first round.

Once they did though, and then proceeded to take that two-game lead on Houston, we redefined what a successful season would be for them. After a slow start to the year, after 82 games of inconsistent defense (L.A. finished 15th in points allowed per possession), after a playoffs in which we saw only four or five guys contribute valuably, it would be reasonable to believe the Clippers got about where they were supposed to go: the conference semis and no further.

Even with the West tougher this year, with the Golden State Warriors returning and Spurs revamping and Oklahoma City Thunder reenergizing, the forecasts for this 2015-16 Clippers team see the L.A. season going deeper maybe than ever before (though many did have high hopes for last year's team in the preseason only to readjust after a murky first few games).

That's where Griffin enters the picture.

When the benches shorten, when L.A. takes a 19-point lead with 14 minutes remaining in a Game 6, when the Clips really need a bucket, that's when you need your postseason stars to take over—or at least to inspire competence. For the first time in his career, Blake is going to enter the playoffs with some prior success dominating—and I mean really dominating—top defenses beyond April. And playing on as deep a roster as he's ever been a part of, he can sail through the regular season more so than ever before.

So, when Griffin's rebounding goes back down this year or he seems to be taking plays a little too lightly, just remember how these past playoffs went for him.

It's all part of the plan. And for the Clippers, it as to be.

Follow Fred Katz on Twitter at @FredKatz.

All statistics courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless noted otherwise.