Griffin to Get Reps for Energy

For most kids, the road immediately after college is usually a windy one; filled with unexpected twists and turns, it takes a while until one finds stability. And although Suns rookie Taylor Griffin may be an NBA player, his career path is no more certain that anyone else’s.

On Monday, the Suns announced that they were sending Taylor to their NBA Development League affiliate, the Iowa Energy. The D-League, which was founded in 2001, boasts 16 teams that serve as the NBA’s official minor league for NBA franchises.

Used as a way to develop young players that aren’t seeing a lot of minutes with their respective NBA teams, the Suns are using the Energy as an opportunity for Griffin to see some game action.

“We really felt like Taylor had distinguished himself in practice as a guy who was getting a lot better and as a guy that was starting to learn the wing position and defending quite well at the 3 and the 4,” Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin said. “But what he really needed was game-time and what he needs was an opportunity to play and to put what he’s working on into action.

Taylor’s a worker and he’s really done everything he can on his own to improve, and it’s just a way for him to get a couple of games and apply what he’s working on.”

Taylor Griffin has only appeared in two games thus far this season, totaling one basket, one block and one rebound in 14 minutes. In the preseason, the Oklahoma graduate averaged nine minutes a game and averaged 1.8 points and two rebounds a night.

The Suns’ Senior VP of Basketball Operations believes that the D-League can be very instrumental for young players if the affiliate’s system correlates with the NBA team’s system. The Energy, who also serve as the minor league affiliate for the Bulls, run similar offensive sets as the Suns.

In fact, the Energy’s coaching staff spent time with the Suns in training camp. Due to these advantages, David Griffin believes that Taylor’s time with the Energy’s should prove to be beneficial.

“We are really high on the coaching staff at Iowa,” David Griffin said. “(Iowa Head Coach) Nick Nurse does a great job of actually understanding and incorporating some of our schemes into what he does and we feel like it will be fairly seamless for him. We think we’ll be able to get a quite a bit out of it because of that.”

During his senior season, Taylor averaged 9.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game on 54 percent shooting in 36 contests. His best individual collegiate performance came in a 22-point, eight-rebound effort during a win at Texas Tech.

The No. 48 overall selection in the 2009 NBA Draft, Taylor is making the adjustment from a power forward in college to the perimeter. The Suns are hoping that his athleticism and work ethic will aid him in making that transition to the wing.

“We’re hoping he’ll get a chance to handle the ball a little bit more, work on his face-up game,” David Griffin added. “Taylor has a tendency to hold the ball too much before he makes a decision, and we’d like to see him get a little bit more comfortable with that.”

Taylor is primed for his D-League debut on Friday against the Dakota Wizards. He’s expected to play the following night – also against the Wizards – before rejoining the rest of his Suns teammates next week.

Currently, Iowa leads the Eastern Conference with a 4-0 record.

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