Blake Griffin's jump shot was the subject of incessant criticism through his first four years in the league before he finally improved it to a respectable level during the 2014-15 season.
And it should be even better this season. Griffin estimates he's put up over 250,000 total shots over the past three years, which has taken his mid-range game to a new level.
"Last year he shot the ball well, and he kept working on it," head coach Doc Rivers told the Los Angeles Times at the team's training camp at UC Irvine on Sunday. "Now it's just natural. He just shoots it. He's at that point with his shooting, [where] it's just shooting, it's not a thought shot."
Adding a jumper has been a necessary evolution for Griffin. Teams have adjusted their defenses to try to prevent his post-ups and rolls to the rim, daring him to beat them with jump shots. Until last season, he couldn't make them pay consistently. But now he can.
As he wrote for the Players' Tribune back in February, Griffin was burning himself out before the playoffs by being too physical. Now, however, he has the option to attack defenses a variety of ways, which makes him more dangerous and takes less of a toll on his body.
The hesitation to shoot that plagued Griffin -- sometimes making him seem confused or scared in big moments -- is gone. "No hesitation in his shot, it looks great," Chris Paul said.
Now he just lets it fly.
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