Choose: Blake Griffin at 26, DeMarcus Cousins at 24, Anthony Davis at 22?

[Celtics18]

Briefly:
Former all star Mo Williams.

Eric Bledsoe wasn't a starter, and he only played 22MPG
similarly:  DeAndre Jordan, he of the 25MPG

Please, regale me with stories of the great Al-Farouq Aminu. Stories that you have and no one else does, apparently, because Aminu kind of sucks at basketball. The '10-'11 Clippers were awful.

You shouldn't have written that. 

[34truth]

take blake out and add AD to this clippers team and they win it all

[Celtics18]

take blake out and add AD to this clippers team and they win it all

They might win it all as they are. 

[D.o.s.]

Briefly:
Former all star Mo Williams.

Eric Bledsoe wasn't a starter, and he only played 22MPG
similarly:  DeAndre Jordan, he of the 25MPG

Please, regale me with stories of the great Al-Farouq Aminu. Stories that you have and no one else does, apparently, because Aminu kind of sucks at basketball. The '10-'11 Clippers were awful.

You shouldn't have written that.

Why? How else do you define a player who's averaging 6 and 5 over 20 minutes with zero Chuck Hayes-ian intangibles to balance it out?

[Celtics18]

Briefly:
Former all star Mo Williams.

Eric Bledsoe wasn't a starter, and he only played 22MPG
similarly:  DeAndre Jordan, he of the 25MPG

Please, regale me with stories of the great Al-Farouq Aminu. Stories that you have and no one else does, apparently, because Aminu kind of sucks at basketball. The '10-'11 Clippers were awful.

You shouldn't have written that.

Why? How else do you define a player who's averaging 6 and 5 over 20 minutes with zero Chuck Hayes-ian intangibles to balance it out?

I can't believe you haven't noticed his intangibles.  I wouldn't call them Chuck Hayes-ian.  They are utterly and uniquely Al-Farouq-ian. 

[crimson_stallion]

1) Anthony Davis
2) Demarcus Cousins
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3) Blake Griffin

Griffin is great against any other standards, but AD and DMC have a level of skill/ability that's on a whole other level, and they also have more untapped potential.

[tarheelsxxiii]

Probably repeating what others have said, but Davis x10. Won't happen, but  he is the future, no question. Wouldn't be surprised if he is the most dominant player in the league within a few years.

[crimson_stallion]

I think if Davis was on the Clippers instead of Davis, they're be little drop-off, if any.  Davis with Jordan defensively?  Man.....that's scary.

I'm pretty confident that the Clippers would be better with Davis than Griffin and I think it would be a lot of games better.  Davis is the third most gifted player in the league and the guy you probably select first if you are starting a franchise.  Griffin is a good player no question, but with Davis you have a real argument who is the best player on the Clippers, with Griffin you don't (and it isn't Griffin).

I disagree with that. I think Griffin is a top 5-7 player in the game, while Chris Paul is a top 10 player.

Chris Paul is far better than you give him credit for, and Blake Griffin is worse.   

CP3 I think ranks top 10 All-Time in PER.  He has no flaws in his game what-so-ever and is one of the most efficient offensive players in the NBA right now - especially when you considering points generated by assists.

Chris Paul this season has averaged 19.1 points per game individually plus 23.27 points generated by assists.  That's a total of 42.37 Points that CP3 generates for the clippers while only attempting 14 field goal attempts - a ridiculous rate of 3.02 points generated per field goal attempt. 

For comparison, Lebron James averaged 25.3 PPG and generated 17.79 points off assists, making him responsible for a total of 43.09 points per game - but he attempted 18.5 FGA for the season.  That gives him a total of 2.3 points generated per field goal attempt.

Chris Paul's numbers look modest because he's a pass-first guy who doesn't take a lot of attempts, but take a look at his career Per-36 averages of 18.6 points (on 13.8 FGA), 9.9 assists, 4.4 rebounds, 2.3 steals combined with his shooting (47.4% / 36.4% / 86.1%) and his insane assist-to-turnover ratio (4.1) and you'll quickly see he's one of the greatest offensive players in history.  He's also made five (5) All-Defensive teams over 10 year career and is widely regarded as one of the best defensive Point Guards of the era.

Chris Paul WILL go down in history as one of the 4 or 5 greatest Point Guards of all time, with Magic Johnson, John Stockton and Jerry West being the only guys who he'll probably never rise above.  He will be a first ballot hall of famer, no questions asked.

Blake Griffin is an outstanding player, but he is not (and probably never will be) even a spec of dust on the floor compared to what Chris Paul has achieved in his career.  That's no disrespect towards Griffin so much as it is simply a representation of how amazing a career Chris Paul has had. 

If professional basketball critics weren't so obsessed with scoring numbers and team success (i.e. championship rings) CP3 would be considered to be right up there with Lebron.

[crimson_stallion]

I mean...is this really a contest? Davis is terrifyingly good. The only players I'd definitely take over Davis are LeBron and Durant, and even with those two, only for the next year or two, tops.

Yeah. I like all 3 players, but even with Blake's playoff numbers so far there's no debate. Not to rely too heavily on the old chestnut of "Give X the team that Y has," but can you imagine Davis in Blake's place? I mean, a Paul-Redick-Barnes-Davis-Jordan starting 5 is, in my opinion, scarier than a Evans (or Holiday)-Gordon-Poindexter-Davis-Asik lineup. No one would get a shot off within 10 feet of the hoop!

But I think get_banners puts a really interesting question out there: let's play the same game with Davis at 22, Durant at 28, and LeBron at 30, and let's say we're talking about just next season. Who would you rather have? I'd still say Davis, but it's a heck of a lot closer for me.

(If you're looking for this year's stats to compare, here's Pro Basketball Reference with the 5 players:  http://bkref.com/tiny/y283c )

 Davis on this Clippers team this year instead of Blake ?,  no way they'd be as successful.   Part of Blake Griffins playoffs #'s is being hard to stop him in one given way.  His skill set is too diverse.

From how he can move off the dribble, the mid range, the driving ability, finishing ability, passing/facilitating.  He's a do it all type of guy and has grown since entering the league. 

Davis in due time will improve but he plays exactly the same each game, he'll score 30PPG off clean up baskets on this Clippers team he wouldn't have nearly as much of those to clean up and defense would shut down his mismatch advantage on single coverage with a double team etc.

This is why basketball is not played on paper.

I think you're vastly underrating Davis and overstating Blake's game. 

Griffin shoots about 40% on shots beyond 3 feet, and those shots account for about 67% of his offense. 

Davis shoots about 44% on shots beyond 3 feet, accounting for 65% of his offense.

On the P&R, Davis ranked in the 84.6th percentile, while Griffin was below average (40.7th percentile) in terms of points per possession.  Davis' eFG% on P&Rs was .572, while Griffin's was .467.

I think it's hard to argue Blake's offensive superiority, when Davis is more effective on both jumpers and the P&R.

 My point is that as of right now Griffin being a more diverse in his skill set he's harder to read from the opposing defense.  Griffin can adjust to the game as the defense changes it's game plan.

 I don't think I'm underrating Davis, he's an amazing player but at the age of 22 I don't think swapping him for Blake would translate to better success this year.  Davis won't be going out their to get a triple double if Chris Paul was injured.

The point of my stats was that I don't think Griffin is any more versatile than Davis.  If he is, the numbers don't really show it.  Griffin is a better passer at this stage.  Davis is a better scorer, better shooter, better defender, and better rebounder.

 The playoffs are a whole different beast.  I agree with your sentiments but I don't take stats as automatic better success as far as winning goes.  I still agree that if you are looking to build around one of these 3 guys than Davis is the correct answer hands down.

But this Clippers team is better off with Blake Griffin, he make's up for the limitation of Reddick and Barnes IMO.

Did any of you guys watch Davis play in his first series in the playoffs, while of course being 22, just now? Against THE top team in the NBA?

54% shooting from the floor, 11 rebounds, 31.5 points per game, 3 block shots per game.

I mean, why are people bringing up the playoffs as a definite win for Blake Griffin when Davis already out played anything Griffin has done at any point his whole career during the playoffs?

There's really no argument to be made. Davis is hands down the best player no matter what angle anyone wants to take.

Blatantly false, Blake's trip-dub takedown of Houston the other day was more significant than any performance AD has had in the playoffs.

Sorry dude, but what a guy does in an entire series impresses me more then what another guy does in one game. 

Anthony Davis has had a more impressive overall playoffs run then Blake Griffin, and he did it against a tougher opponent. 

All three of the guys mentioned here can score, but before Griffin can be considered on the same level as AD and DMC he needs to improve drastically as a defensive player.

Defensive Real-Plus-Minus
Anthony Davis: +4.23 (2nd among Power Forwards, 7th among all players)
Demarcus Cousins: +4.75 (2nd among Centers, 4th among all players) 
Blake Griffin: +0.37 (45th among Power Forwards, 159th among all players)

Offensive Real-Plus-Minus
Anthony Davis: +3.98 (1st among Power Forwards, 13th among all players) 
Demarcus Cousins:  +1.4 (4th among Centers, 67th among all players)
Blake Griffin: +3.15 (3rd among Power Forwards, 23rd among all players)

Overall Real-Plus-Minus
Anthony Davis: +8.21 (1st among Power Forwards, 3rd among all players)
Demarcus Cousins:  +6.15 (1st among Centers,  9th among all players)
Blake Griffin: +3.52 (7th among Power Forwards, 34th among all players)

[D.o.s.]

Anthony Davis got swept in the first round, so not only does the small sample size argument apply, but there's also the scoreboard argument.

[markb]

AD........NOT CLOSE.

[crimson_stallion]

Anthony Davis got swept in the first round, so not only does the small sample size argument apply, but there's also the scoreboard argument.

On a team that won how many games last year?

The fact that the Pelican's even made the playoffs (Over Westbrook's Thunder, no less) says all that you need to say about Davis.

I can't believe a person who has just spend 5-6 years watching Rajon Rondo is getting so excited over a SINGLE playoff triple double.  Rondo put up about 2 or 3 of those every time he played a playoff series - a single one is really not that impressive.

Just look at the Real Plus Minus numbers I quoted above, they will tell you how much each of those players helps their team on both ends of the floor.  It's clear as day that Anthony Davis has more impact on the Pelicans than Griffin has on the Clippers.

See, without Griffin the Clippers still have one of the top 5 PG's ever to play the game, a guy who is probably the best rim protector (and rebounder) in the entire NBA, and a couple of very capable scorers.  Without Griffin, they are still a playoff team.

Without Davis, the Pelican's still have...Eric Gordon?  Yeah, that's a bottom 5 lottery team.

[BornReady]

Easy Anthony Davis
He's the youngest and was considered a mvp candidate earlier in the season
Plus each season he's seem to be getting better and better in large strides 
I wouldn't be surprised if he started shooting 3s more often

I can't really say the same with griffin despite him improving in post ups and FT shooting

Demarcus counsins also looks good but he just needs to get his head together at times

[TheOneTrueRobb]

Blake is the most overrated superstar in today's game. Thanks.

Wrong. Blake is one of the most improved players of the modern era. Griffiths's transformation from Dunk Artist/Hilite film stalwart to solid NBA PF is reminiscent of Jordan's similar transformation.