Doc Rivers says Blake Griffin’s jumper looks even better this season

Over the last three years, the Clippers’ Blake Griffin has poured himself into improving his midrange jumper, shooting about 300 shots a day.

He had glimpses of greatness with the shot last season, including making a game-winning three-pointer in overtime against the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 8. Entering the 2015-16 season, Coach Doc Rivers said Griffin’s jumper has only improved.

“Last year he shot the ball well, and he kept working on it,” Rivers said at the team’s training camp in Irvine on Sunday. “Now it’s just natural. He just shoots it. He’s at that point with his shooting, [where] it’s just shooting, it’s not a thought shot.”

In a column that Griffin wrote for the Players’ Tribune, he explained why he wanted to incorporate the jumper into his game. In his early years, he said, he learned that relying on his athleticism alone left him exhausted by February.

So Griffin said he has taken more than 250,000 of the shots over the last three years, and that last year he began to really see results.

He became much more than a low-post, dunking threat, and acknowledged that he gets more pleasure from making a jumper than a jam.

Rivers said he noticed a huge difference in the power forward’s shooting confidence when Griffin made that game-winning three-pointer in December.

“Two years ago, Blake didn’t have the courage to take that shot,” Rivers said after the Clippers’ 121-120 win. “Tonight he actually wanted it.”

Griffin averaged 21.9 points on 50.2% shooting, 7.6 rebounds and a career-high 5.3 assists a game during the 2014-15 season. During the playoffs, he averaged postseason career-highs in points (25.5), field goal percentage (51.1%), rebounds (12.7) and assists (6.1). Some said he was the most complete player in the playoffs before the Clippers were eliminated by the Rockets in Game 7 of the second round.

Chris Paul, who has played alongside Griffin for two days in training camp, agreed that Griffin’s midrange jumper seems to be even more seamlessly integrated into his game entering this season.

“No hesitation in his shot, it looks great,” Paul said.