Clippers welcome top pick Griffin

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy had no doubts who his team would take when they won the draft lottery in May.

"I knew that was Blake," said Dunleavy, who was scouting in Spain when the news came to him of Los Angeles' good fortunes. "No question."

It's too soon for Dunleavy to compare the No. 1 overall pick in the draft to any one player.

"He's somewhere between Charles Barkley's explosiveness and ability to rebound" and "Tim Duncan's size and ballhandling skills out on the floor" Dunleavy said of Griffin, 20, after introducing him to a crowd of several hundred at the Clippers' new workout facility in Playa Vista.

The 6-foot-10 Oklahoma product and consensus national player of the year averaged 22.7 points a game and 14.4 rebounds, recorded 30 double-doubles this past season, the second highest all-time in NCAA history to David Robinson's 31.

Griffin will get the chance, Dunleavy said, to show that the Clippers, exercising just the third overall No. 1 pick in franchise history, made the right choice.

"He'll be on a long leash.," Dunleavy said. "I'm not afraid to play rookies."

Griffin said he's not putting pressure on himself. But he does plan to come in and work hard.

"I don't plan on being the savior," he said, after arriving in town Friday.

He's already worked out twice with his new teammates Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan and Mike Taylor, and already felt like he was fitting in.

The Clippers will try and make the playoffs for just the eighth time in the franchise's history as the Buffalo Braves, San Diego and Los Angeles Clippers.

The last NBA No. 1 pick for the Clippers, Michael Olowokandi in 1998, didn't pan out, averaging just 9.9 points in five seasons. The 1988 overall No. 1 pick, Danny Manning from Kansas, did, averaging 19.1 points a game in six seasons despite injury issues.

Griffin got an early start playing in front of big crowds., playing baseball as a three-year-old.

"I was really nervous," Griffin said. He was the batboy/little brother hanger-on for older brother Taylor's T-ball team of six-year-olds when the coach said he could bat in a lopsided game. "That was the largest crowd I'd ever played in front of."

He doubled the first time up, tripled the second. "We knew he was special right then," his father said.