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Prior to trading All-Star point guard Chris Paul to the Houston Rockets, the L.A. Clippers had been sidetracked by the constant internal issues that had arisen over the last couple of years.
A part of that was the conflict between Paul and All-Star forward Blake Griffin that had become a constant because of the lack of success in the playoffs. During a recent interview with Michael Lee of The Vertical, Griffin voiced that he feels that he didn't defer to his former teammate during the big moments of the game.
Though the Clippers probably needed Griffin to assume more ownership of the team, especially in bigger moments to relieve Paul of the pressure he felt to lead, he typically just deferred to avoid any conflicts. “I didn’t really look at it on those terms, deferring or not,” Griffin told The Vertical. “I think that’s what CP does best, he controls tempos of games, and controls the flow and all that. Whenever you have a player and that’s one of their main strengths, I’m not going to try to step in and take that away, just out of ego or whatever it is. I don’t look at it as deferring, I look at it as being a teammate and realizing what your role is on a team.”
This seems to be more of allowing Paul to handle the ball and playmake where he has proven to be most effective over his career. Griffin has shown the ability in stretches when the 32-year-old was sidelined with injuries, but once he returned to the court, things went back to Paul re-assuming that crucial role.
This could have been a huge reason why things began to fall apart at the seams behind closed doors over the last few seasons. However, what also contributed to their postseason shortcomings was untimely injuries to both Paul and Griffin that put an end to their championship hopes.
There was clearly a slew of things that contributed to this situation ultimately not working out.
