Griffin working out with no restrictionsEmail Print Comments32 By Ramona Shelburne
ESPNLosAngeles.com
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The Los Angeles Clippers may not have won the NBA draft lottery for the second year in a row,
but they are getting the No. 1 pick.


Last year's No. 1 overall pick, that is.


Blake Griffin, the Oklahoma star who missed all of his rookie season with a stress fracture
in his left kneecap, has been fully 
cleared for all basketball activities.


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"Right now Blake is working out with no restrictions, at full speed, 100 percent to the point
where [strength coach] Rich Williams 
asked me to talk to Blake about dialing it back a little bit," Clippers general manager Neil
Olshey said.


"He's working out in May like we were ready to tip off in October. The only guy I feel bad for
is the first one of his teammates 
that shows up and wants to play one-on-one with him."


Griffin injured his knee in the Clippers' final preseason game on October 23. He rested for
a few weeks and was hoping to return by 
the middle of the season. But the recovery process did not go as hoped and he was forced to
have season-ending surgery.


"It's been a long year; it's been tough to sit out" Griffin said before the Clippers' final
game of the season on April 14. "But 
from my point of view, my rookie year is next year and I've got an up close and personal look
at what I need to do and what I need 
to be prepared for."


Olshey said that the team is still deciding whether to have Griffin play in the Las Vegas Summer
League, where he was MVP last year, 
though it sounded as though he probably won't.


"Whether or not he defends his title as the summer league MVP, we'll take that as it comes,"
Olshey said. "But I don't know if we'll 
expose him to running around with a bunch of rookies and undrafted free agents.


"I don't know if playing five games in Vegas in July really makes a difference for what we need
in October. But if he doesn't play 
with the team, it'll have nothing to do with health issues."


Olshey said that doctors have indicated Griffin's stress fracture was a "freak thing" that won't
be a concern now that it's healed 
properly, and that his knee is actually feeling better than before because his tendonitis healed
because of the extended layoff.


"The interesting thing is we're going to end up with a better rookie than we would've nine months
ago just because of all the time 
he's spent in the gym working on his shooting mechanics," Olshey said. "He's in there every
day.


"It goes to the type of kid he is. There's almost a guilt there when he saw what the other rookies
are doing. He's almost trying to 
prove to us what we already knew about him, which is that we're not going to find a harder worker
or a better kid. "

Ramona Shelburne is columnist and reporter for ESPNLosAngeles.com.

 


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