Beijing time on February 25, the NBA regular season continued, the Nets lost to the Celtics 106-129, in the absence of Durant, Irving and Simmons, the Nets lost to the Celtics in good shape is not a surprising result, but after the game, there are still many people who have doubts about Nash's employment, because in this game, he only let Griffin play for 7 minutes.
During these 7 minutes of playing time, Griffin made a total of 2 shots, all three-pointers. One of them was a three-point shot in the offensive and defensive transition, and the other came from the first quarter near the end of the game, he tried a half-time long three-point shot, naturally failed to hit. Since then, Griffin has not played in this game.
After the game, a reporter also asked Nash about Griffin's playing time, and Nash's response was interesting, saying that "we still value Griffin." He'll get more playing time or play a bigger role in the rotation. ”
Nash seems to be ready to increase Griffin's playing time, or increase his tactical status, but fans familiar with the Nets should know that Nash has said this too many times and can't be true. The remarks at the press conference were all about drawing a pie for Griffin and dealing with the doubts of the media and reporters. As it stands, Griffin has been completely destroyed by Nash because the way he uses Griffin is fundamentally wrong.
One might question whether Griffin didn't start the center earlier this season? Later, it was entirely because the three-point shot was too iron, only to be taken down by Nash to start, reducing the playing time, such a result should be his own responsibility, should not blame Nash.
Admittedly, Griffin's competitive form has indeed declined this season, with his three-point shooting percentage of only 23.7 percent, which has also led to his inability to play a qualified space-type interior. But the problem is that since Griffin's debut, his positioning should not be a spatial interior line at all. After all, Griffin has never been a player known for projection, and why Nash let him be a space-type interior is also because he joined the Nets last season after the three-point shooting was very accurate, and even the playoff three-point shooting rate was as high as 39%.
But the feel of a short time is good, sometimes it does not explain the problem, and Griffin should not simply be positioned as a spatial interior line. What he really should play is actually the role played by Johnson, the Nets' starting No. 4 , the organizational forward. In the late Clippers career and piston period, in fact, Griffin has practiced a certain tandem organization ability, has averaged 6.2 assists per game, and Griffin's ability to hold the ball and dribble is also significantly better than Johnson. Perhaps now due to the decline in physical fitness, Griffin's ability to finish is not as good as the peak, but the ability to read the opponent's defense and organize the tandem team will not be affected by the decline in physical fitness.
But somehow Nash would rather give Johnson the ball to a pure blue-collar player than try to give Griffin the ball to organize, only to let him float outside the three-point line. As a result, Johnson had too many shots, and it turned out that he simply could not digest so many balls. Johnson played 29 minutes in this campaign, shooting only 2 of 12 shots, and his performance was once again criticized by the outside world.
If Nash reused Johnson instead of Griffin for the purpose of defending better and not taking possession of the ball, then maybe there is some truth to it. It is really difficult to accept that Johnson, who has played a blue-collar worker all his life, can hold the ball and let Griffin always be 3D.
So if Nash really wants to make good on his promise to give Griffin a more important role, then he should probably consider whether to let Griffin and Johnson swap roles, and the latter is indeed more suitable than Griffin as a pure blue-collar 3D player, maybe this change, both of them can be in a better state. But if Nash is still bent on going his own way, or doing one thing after another, then Griffin is better off playing this season than to change teams.