Clippers' Griffin says he's ready to go now
Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin says he's healthy enough to play right now.
"If camp started tomorrow, I'd be ready to go," Griffin told ESPNLosAngeles. "I could go now if I needed to."
Griffin suffered a medial meniscus tear of his left knee on July 11 during Team USA's training camp in Las Vegas. He had arthroscopic surgery to repair the tear.
Training camp doesn't start until Oct. 1, and Griffin says he'll be ready well before that.
"The surgery wasn't one of those things that took a long time (to recover from)," Griffin said. "It was just a matter of getting my strength back and we really took our time with it. I could have been back even earlier than that.
"I just needed to get the swelling out of the knee. That was the biggest battle. There's nothing that needs time to repair or heal. It was just reducing the swelling and getting the strength back in my leg and once I got that, I was out on the court every day."
Although Griffin is ready to go, teammates Chris Paul and Chauncey Billups are still recovering from injuries. Paul had surgery last week to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb, and Billups had surgery in February to repair a torn left Achilles tendon.
"I talked with Chris yesterday and I think he'll be back for sure before the start of the season," Griffin told ESPNLosAngeles. "Chauncey, I'm not sure. He looks great. He's been in working out and I've seen him the past couple days. He looks really good. He looks like he's ahead of schedule but at the same time, it's not worth it to rush it for him because we do have guys who can fill that void until he is 100 percent healthy."
The regular season starts Oct. 31.
