Blake Griffin On Offseason Training, LA’s Moves, More

Last season, Blake Griffin led the Los Angeles Clippers to 56 wins and averaged 21.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists while shooting 50.2 percent from the field and 40 percent from three-point range.

Griffin became just the second player this decade to average at least 21 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5 assists over a full season, with the only other player to accomplish the feat being LeBron James. And as if you need more evidence of how well-rounded Griffin was this past year, consider that he averaged more points than Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson and Damian Lillard, he averaged more rebounds than Al Horford, LeBron James and Roy Hibbert and he averaged more assists than Irving, Tony Parker and Goran Dragic.

Griffin has established himself as one of the league’s best players, and it’s in large part due to the work he does in the offseason.

Basketball Insiders caught up with Griffin recently for a wide-ranging Q&A, discussing his offseason training, the Clippers’ additions, the DeAndre Jordan situation, potentially finishing his career in Los Angeles, his acting and improv work, the possibility of being in Space Jam 2 and much more.

Basketball Insiders: You’ve added different things to your game each summer. Where are you working out this offseason and what aspects of your game are you working on?

Blake Griffin: “I did a lot of my offseason stuff here in L.A. I like to get out of the training facility and I work out with my trainer, doing strength and conditioning stuff in El Segundo in his gym. I’ll use just random gyms, like I use this high school gym down in Manhattan Beach sometimes. Then, I kind of bounced around a bit. I did some workouts in New York because I had to be there for a little bit so I worked out there. As far as what we worked on, a lot of face up, off the post, off the elbow, a lot of short roll stuff, getting into the lane, floaters – just because we get so much of that with our spacing of the court and how many pick and rolls we run with CP. [I worked on] a lot of stuff actually off the dribble too, just like one dribble pull-ups and things like that. A lot of post-ups too. This summer, I really did a whole lot and kind of mixed it up. Like last summer, I did so much shooting – a lot of catch and shooting, a lot of pick and pop – and I still did that this summer a lot, but I just tried to kind of focus on literally everything this summer.”

Basketball Insiders: As you mentioned, you spent a lot of time in the gym working on your jump shot last year and it translated to success during the season. Now, after another offseason of work, where is your confidence level with your jump shot?

Blake Griffin: “Every summer and every year, it really gets better and better. I feel a lot more confident going into this season, definitely more so than last season. Each year and each offseason, I try to kind of reflect on the last season and see what I did – what I maybe did too much of, what I didn’t do enough of – and I think last year sometimes I settled [for jump shots] a bit too much. This year, I’m really trying to perfect that balance of pick and pops versus putting it on the floor and making plays, so that’s kind of why I focused on everything this summer. Just being able to use the spacing of our floor, having J.J. [Redick] out there spacing the floor and the same thing with CP when he gets doubled team, [I] just really wanted to being able to have an array of shots and not just focus on pick and pops and catch and shoots.”

Basketball Insiders: I don’t think people realize how hard you work. I’ve known Jamal Crawford for years and he always raves about your work ethic, saying you’re always the first guy in the gym. Can you walk me through one of your typical summer workouts, just so people can get a glimpse of what you do?

Blake Griffin: “A typical day, when I’m really into the full swing of things in the offseason, starts early in the morning because I don’t really sleep in. I wake up around 6:45 a.m. and I’m starting by 7:30 a.m. or sometimes 8:00 a.m. Every now and then, I do kind of a crazy week where I start my workouts at 6 a.m. just to kind of mix it up and make me concentrate a little bit more, taking me out of my comfort zone a little bit. I do that for a week once a month. But once I start with my trainer, we do a lot of corrective stuff early like balance, all of my stuff for my back and any type of little problems I have, we just work on correcting those things. Then, we move on to weights and then for conditioning we do like basically a heart rate training program. It’s kind of a more efficient way of training and doing cardio. We mix it up though. I did a lot of pool stuff this summer, a lot of swimming this summer, which I love. I did a lot of that two summers ago, so I got back into the pool a lot, did a lot of swimming, I’ll do some sand workouts and just kind of mix up the cardio just so I’m not constantly just doing the same thing – running on the treadmill or on the court. After weights, we do that, then I go straight into basketball and we’ll do ball-handling and then we do a lot post-up moves like hooks and things like that and then kind of work our way out. So that’s probably another hour and a half. I try not to be on the court for a ton of time. For me, it’s more about me doing everything [in] game speed and [taking] game shots rather than just catching and shooting and going through the motions. That’s about an hour and half and then a lot of times I mix in yoga. And this summer I really focused a lot on my body, just unloading just as much as I loaded. I’ll do a lot of yoga, do a lot of deep tissue stuff, a lot of stretching and things like that. I thought last summer I worked really hard, but I also didn’t do as good as job of taking care of my body from a deep tissue and stretching standpoint so I made that more of an emphasis this year. It’s a long time working, like five or six hours a day, but I see the difference now in the way my body feels. Going into training camp, I probably haven’t felt better so I’m excited about the work we put in this summer.”

Basketball Insiders: You guys were very active this summer, adding players like Paul Pierce, Lance Stephenson, Josh Smith and others. What are your overall thoughts on the offseason additions?

Blake Griffin: “I’m very excited, man. Obviously with the whole DJ (DeAndre Jordan) thing – that was a priority bringing him back and everybody kind of knows about that – that kind of almost overshadowed all the other things we did. Adding Josh Smith to our bench is huge, adding Lance Stephenson, adding Paul Pierce with all of his his experience, I thought we did a really good job this summer of just putting a plan together of guys that we wanted and positions that we wanted and then going out and actually getting it done. I feel really good about our bench, but obviously, like every team, we have to put it together. But I’m excited, especially since the past of couple weeks we’ve started having more guys in [L.A.] and our team is starting to take a little shape just through our workouts and playing pick-up. I think this could be a special season for us.”

Basketball Insiders: Do you think this will be the most talented team you’ve played on?

Blake Griffin: “Yeah, it absolutely has a chance to be. I’m always hesitant to say that because you know how it is, guys get a roster and it all seems great but sometimes it doesn’t work out. But I think the thing I’m most excited about is just everyone’s eagerness. Like Lance and I were just talking earlier in the summer he was like, ‘I’m just ready to come in and play basketball, I’m ready to help win games,’ and everybody is saying those things. When that’s the main focus, I think it just kind of puts you in a position for success. Obviously, like I said, we have to see how everything turns out and we have to put in the work, but we definitely have the chance to be one of the most talented teams. I think three years ago, when we had Eric Bledsoe coming off the bench, we had Lamar Odom, we had Grant Hill and we had that whole team, we were talented and we had a lot of experience too. This team is a little bit different in that we might not have the same experience and championship experience, but we do have guys that have been in the league and been successful and are very talented as well.”

Basketball Insiders: I don’t want to spend too much time talking about the DeAndre Jordan situation because it’s been covered a lot. But in your Players Tribune article, you mentioned the moment you started realizing DeAndre was having second thoughts about his decision to go to Dallas. But what was going through your head when you initially heard DeAndre had agreed to a deal with the Mavericks? It obviously all worked out, but that must have been a scary few days.

Blake Griffin: “Yeah, it was, it was. When he first told me that [he was going to Dallas], before it had even come out, it was hard. Because, at the time, that’s what he said he wanted and I thought that’s what he wanted so I was happy for him. But at the same time, it’s like, ‘Uh oh, now we got to really go find guys and put a team together.’ I’m a believer in, ‘Okay, that didn’t work so we got to find something else.’ I didn’t want to just automatically say, ‘Oh, we’re not a contender anymore,’ even though the reality is he is a huge part of our team. I try not to even let myself think like that, being one of the leaders of this team. But I remember talking to CP that day and he was just like, ‘What do you think?’ And I’m like, ‘We’ll be alright, we just got to figure it out…’ But obviously having him back is just a huge relief.”

Basketball Insiders: From the outside looking in, it seems like that DeAndre situation was great for the team. Things were put out in the open, relationships were evaluated and it seems like there was progress made. Is that accurate, and do you think that situation helped the team moving forward?

Blake Griffin: “I think so. You could say it was a team building experience and team building exercise, in an unplanned way. But that whole article I wrote was kind of just trying to show that it wasn’t quite what everyone thought it was, from the drama standpoint. You know, he was having second thoughts and of course, as his teammates and his friends, we want to be there for him. It wasn’t like we were like, ‘Okay, we’ve got to go in here secretly and do all of this stuff and try and get him back.’ And in that sense, it kind of goes the same way for our team. Like, I think people think that our team has all of these personal relationship problems, but it’s not really like that – it’s not really like that at all. Yes, it did help, but it’s not like we were just in turmoil, you know what I mean? I do think it’s going to help though because anytime you do something like that and you sit down and really talk about things I think it helps because it’s communication and that’s necessary within the team. But again, I don’t think people really understand our dynamic as a team and they don’t understand that we all are very close and there’s nobody that hates each other on our team. [Rumors like that] couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Basketball Insiders: When I look at your team, you have two Most Valuable Player candidates (yourself and Chris Paul), a former Coach of the Year (Doc Rivers), a Defensive Player of the Year candidate (DeAndre Jordan), a Finals MVP (Paul Pierce), a two-time Sixth Man of the Year (Jamal Crawford) and a combined 23 All-Star appearances. Yet, there’s this perception that you aren’t a legitimate contender. Last year, I predicted that you guys would make the Finals and I was mocked and laughed at on Twitter. Does that motivate you or piss you off?

Blake Griffin: “You know, all of those things are true. We do have a guy in DJ that is a defensive force and a Defensive Player of the Year candidate. CP, year in and year out, is one of the best point guards in the league, if not the best. Doc obviously has a great reputation and has had a lot of success. But for us, we haven’t done anything and we know that. Paul Pierce is an NBA champion and obviously a future Hall of Famer, but this is his first year with us so I don’t think we as a team look at it as us being automatic contenders because we haven’t done anything, man. We’ve all been together and we’ve won two division titles, you know what I mean? That’s not getting it done and I think if you talk to our team, everybody will say that. At the same time though, yeah it does motivate you because you want that respect. But you have to earn that respect and I think we’re still in the process of earning that respect and we have to accomplish something. So it’s kind of a weird thing: we should use that as motivation, we should want that respect and that should be our chip on our shoulder, but we understand it a bit. I get it, you know? No one is going to give you the title until you’ve actually earned it and we haven’t earned that title of being a contender yet because we haven’t even been to the Western Conference Finals yet. That’s the fight though, that’s the battle that we have to overcome and I think we’re all ready for that.”

Basketball Insiders: How nice is it to be one of the best teams in the league while the Lakers are struggling. I know the Clippers have often been viewed as the little brother and the worse team in L.A. You experienced it early in your career when they were winning titles and you guys were struggling. How nice is it to be the dominant team in L.A. by a huge margin?

Blake Griffin: “The Lakers have had so much success in the past that this town is a Laker town and people love the Lakers. But that being said, we’re gaining some [ground], we’re gaining some fans. The funniest thing to me, and I think this kind of sums up the relationship between us and the Lakers, is during my rookie year – the year I was hurt – when I was sitting out I would go to our game when it was a Lakers home game and we’d run on the court and the Lakers fans didn’t really boo. There might have been, like, two or three people booing, but they’re the ones who always boo. Now, when we run out, it’s the whole stadium and you kind of feel that hate, and I think that’s because now we have a team that can compete with them every year and we have a team that has won games against them, whereas we never really had that before we were all here. Like I said, what the Lakers have done with their championships, those are never going to go anywhere and they’ve earned those and we’re trying to get to that level. I think you kind of feel the pressure a little bit and the change in the way that the Lakers fans treat us, but you get that. I think it’s great for basketball, I think it’s great for L.A. and I think it’s great for us.”

Basketball Insiders: You’ve done some improv work with hilarious comedians and actors, including one of my favorites: Ben Schwartz. When did you start getting into improv and acting, and do you aspire to have an acting career?

Blake Griffin: “I’ve been into comedy and improv for as long as I can remember. I remember watching Saturday Night Live for as long as I could remember. I use to watch improv shows and standup comedy, just any kind of comedy. I’m a huge fan of comedy. Now, I’ve gotten the opportunity to kind of do some cool things and meet some awesome people, like Ben, but I’m not an actor. I don’t think acting is the route I’m going to go. I’m a fan of all of that stuff and I like doing it, and there may be sometime where I get to do something. But down the road, after my career, I probably won’t be acting [full-time]. It’s not really my thing, because right now it’s just all basketball and all of the stuff I get to do is on the side and it’s extra. But it is a lot of fun for me and I really do enjoy it.”

Basketball Insiders: Do you know what you want to do when your playing career ends? Would you be interested in broadcasting, coaching or anything like that?

Blake Griffin: “Right now, I will tell you this: I definitely will not get into broadcasting. Well, I guess I shouldn’t say definitely, but I probably won’t get into broadcasting. That’s just not something I’m looking to do. But I do enjoy helping kids and helping guys, so maybe coaching or helping guys workout, something like that. Then, away from the court, there’s different things. I’ve had the chance to meet a lot of awesome people out here who have helped me a lot, so maybe a long time down the road I could get into the production side of things. But basketball is what I know and what I love, so maybe down the road [I’ll do] a little bit of coaching. But as of now, it’s pretty much a no on the broadcasting front.”

Basketball Insiders: Well, there is one movie everyone can imagine you in and that’s Space Jam 2. Your recent Marvin the Martian commercial got some Space Jam fans excited. Would you like to be in a Space Jam sequel if it ends up being made?

Blake Griffin: “Oh absolutely, absolutely. I’d love to be involved in any capacity, really. Space Jam was a huge part of my childhood. I actually had a Space Jam themed birthday party as a teen. Then, when I turned 21, my friends got me a Space Jam cake again just to re-live the glory days. It has been a big thing for me so being able to be involved in any capacity would be great, even just being one of the guys that’s in there would be cool. I think it would be a lot of fun. If you told me when I was 8 years old that I could possibly have a chance to be in Space Jam 2, it would have blown my mind. That would just be like another check off the bucket list.”

Basketball Insiders: Los Angeles seems perfect for you given your interests and laid-back personality. Could you see yourself finishing your career with the Clippers?

Blake Griffin: “Yeah, I mean L.A. is my home now. This is where I got drafted and I’ve been here since the beginning. I’ve been with this franchise during some bad times. You know, it hasn’t always been like it is now; anytime you have a chance to go from that to this, you feel invested. I’m not looking to go anywhere. With that being said, you never know [in this business]. But I’m happy here, I love it here, and I would love to finish my career here.”

Here are some more of Alex Kennedy’s offseason interviews:

Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard

Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green

Los Angeles Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell

Sacramento Kings’ Rajon Rondo

Orlando Magic’s Elfrid Payton

Los Angeles Clippers’ Jamal Crawford

Los Angeles Lakers’ Lou Williams

Denver Nuggets’ Emmanuel Mudiay

New York Knicks’ Arron Afflalo

Indiana Pacers’ Myles Turner

Portland Trail Blazers’ C.J. McCollum

New York Knicks’ Kyle O’Quinn

Portland Trail Blazers’ Ed Davis

Los Angeles’ Larry Nance Jr.

Brooklyn Nets’ Willie Reed