Ken Berger

LOS ANGELES -- After spending a day with the Clippers, Blake Griffin still wanted to be one. Speaking of an organization for which so much has gone wrong, that's progress.

But in Clipperland, nothing ever goes quite as planned. When the team opened its gym in a palatial new practice facility for a public workout with their future No. 1 pick, fans, sponsors, and media were treated to a sound they've heard plenty before.

Clank.

Griffin, the consensus college player of the year, showed off his speed, agility, and frightening athleticism in an hour-long workout for the team that already has proclaimed it will select him with the No. 1 pick in this month's draft. He also displayed a shaky mid-range jumper, balky stroke from the free-throw line, and maybe a little bit of nerves. Once he got past the initial jitters, Griffin said it was an environment he could handle.

"I'm not used to guys bringing me towels in between drills," Griffin said. "That was kind of nice."

Mike Dunleavy, the Clippers' coach and GM who's decided to stake his reputation on Griffin, raved about his character, athleticism, and ball-handling. Griffin's jumper? Eh.

"There's some things with his shot that he has to work on, and he will," Dunleavy said. "But he shoots the ball well enough from mid-range that you have to guard him."

On film and in live games, that may have been true. But in this workout, Griffin -- by his own admission -- shot the ball poorly with nobody guarding him. Dunleavy isn't concerned, because he picked something up right away that a jump-shooting amateur like myself easily missed: If Griffin bobbles the ball on the catch, his first reaction is to lean his head back when he goes up with the shot. The result was what the 100 or so observers witnessed for most of the workout -- short, flat jump shots. That, presumably, can be fixed.

What Griffin alone won't fix is the combustible chemistry that exists on the team he will join in less than a month. He met Baron Davis during his visit -- "Let's get this thing rolling," Baron told him -- but seemed somewhat oblivious to the potential drama that awaits him.

"That is in the past," Griffin said. "I'm not going to worry about what happened 10 year ago, five years ago. As long as we're moving forward, if I'm here, that's all I care about. I think we will."

Dunleavy said other teams have been put on notice that he's not interested in trading the pick, putting the percentage chance he'll use it at "99.9 percent." But there are always exceptions.

"You can never say never about anything, obviously," Dunleavy said. "I don't know who the players are in this league who may fit into that category. Obviously if the word 'LeBron' was spoken by anybody, somebody's door would open."

Listed at 6-10 -- and he looked an inch shy of that to me -- Griffin has the handle and agility to play small or power forward. Defensively, he looked capable of guarding at least three positions. He said some have compared him to Karl Malone, but I'd like to know what those people were smoking. Griffin looks like the classic swing player that is so crucial to the floor-spacing and offensive freedom that the NBA is trying to foster. Not having seen him enough in college to make a declarative statement, he didn't look like a pure power player in this workout to me.

Either way, even Dunleavy admitted that someone will have to go once Griffin arrives. "The math isn't great," he said, noting that he already has Marcus Camby, Chris Kaman, and Zach Randolph at the power positions before Griffin puts on a jersey. "Obviously," Dunleavy said, "we're going to explore other options."

Yup, those are the Clippers. Always exploring something. Maybe this is the one.