English: Steve Blake playing with the Portland Trail Blazers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The banner appears at the top of Steve Blake's newly launched website with a message epitomizing how he's viewing the 2012-13 season.
It touts the championships he won both in high school (Oak Hill Academy in Virginia in 1999) and in college (University of Maryland in 2002). The banner describes Blake as a "proven winner on every level." But then on the far end featuring his NBA career, the following phrase highlights Blake's awareness that unfinished business remains.
"One more championship to go."
Plenty of the Lakers sense that window of opportunity closing.
Kobe Bryant's legacy remains intact with five championship rings, but another one would further cement his status among NBA greats and yield inevitable comparisons to Michael Jordan. The Lakers' front office has a tough juggling act in devoting enough resources to construct a championship roster while somehow cutting payroll to avoid the harsher financial penalties called for in the new labor deal. For Blake, the pressure involves ensuring the latter half of his four-year, $16-million contract he signed in 2010 ends better than the two early playoff exits in the Western Conference semifinals.
"As I'm getting older, I definitely want to get a championship and get a ring," Blake said Thursday night in a phone interview with The Times. "The motto has been whatever it takes to get it. Whether it's coming off the bench, playing more minutes, less minutes, supporting my teammates, playing the game the right way, whatever it takes."
Barring any major moves, how Blake navigates that role could largely determine whether the Lakers improve on a reserve unit that last year ranked last in the league in points (30.5), 20th in shooting percentage (21.8%) and 28th in efficiency (27.2).
The Lakers have always valued Blake's team-first mentality. That hasn't changed.
Blake sounded enthusiastic with the Lakers acquisition of Steve Nash in a sign-and-trade from the Phoenix Suns, a move Blake argued "can definitely take us to that next level." Blake lauded Nash as "one of the best point guards ever to play his game." And without prompting, Blake immediately conceded, "Obviously, I'll be his backup."
The other part involving Blake's role remains unclear. The parting message Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak and Coach Mike Brown gave Blake during his exit interview involved the need to become more selfish. He sounded a bit wary, however, on drastically adopting that mind-set.
"I guess I could go find a pickup game where I'm the best player out there and shoot every shot," Blake said. "I could do that. But really, I'm not going to change my game as far as becoming more selfish or whatnot. The way I come into training camp, you feel your way out. If your role is to become a distributor and passer on that particular team, you do that. If the team needs you to try to be more aggressive, you try to do that. It's really based on what our team is going to need."
Part of that weariness stemmed from Blake already making relative improvement from his first year to the 2011-12 season in running the offense and looking for his shot. Although Blake averaged only 5.2 points on a 37.7% shooting in the regular season, he hit some big shots in the playoffs, including the Lakers' victories in Games 1, 3 and 7 of their first-round series against Denver. He scored in double digits in nine games. And some of the dropoff in play proved circumstantial; it took Blake six games to get into rhythm following a rib injury that sidelined him for 13 games in January.
Still, Blake works this offseason to improve.
Blake engages in MMA training to sharpen his aggressiveness and conditioning. In hopes to improve his mid-range jumper, Blake simulates pick-and-roll plays by dribbling off of cones and pulling up for shots. He routinely played pickup games at the Clippers' practice facility when he stayed in L.A. and at Portland State and Portland University near his home. He'll fit in such workouts even after hosting basketball camps July 9-13 at Lake Oswego High School in Oregon and July 30-Aug.3 at Discovery Sports Center in Germantown, M.D.
Blake also says he'll heed the coaching staff's advice on not picking up his dribble too early.
"That's something a point guard can always work on, with keeping his dribble alive a little better," he said. "It's so important. In this past season, I went through a stretch where I was doing better with that. I worked with [player development coach] Phil Handy and did more drills to get back into more of the flow of things and doing that a little better as far as keeping my dribble alive. I've improved on that and I keep that in the back of my mind to always be better at that."
How that will translate into his performance next season and help limit Nash's minutes, Blake readily concedes, "You never really know until you get in games." Regardless, Blake says he'll continue "to plug away" in order to help squeeze out his first championship.
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