Blake Griffin, who was ruled out for the remainder of the postseason with a toe injury, can become a free agent this summer, but he may not have many teams lining up to give him a long-term max deal, Kevin O’ Connor of The Ringer contends. O’Connor details Griffin’s injury history, which includes several ailments on each of his legs, and believes it will cause rival teams to be cautious when making the big man a multi-year offer in free agency. Griffin could always elect not to activate his ETO and stay with the Clippers, though the $21.4MM he would receive in the 2017/18 season is less than the annual salary he’s likely to receive on the open market.
Here’s more from Los Angeles:
- The window to trade Griffin closed over a season ago and the Clippers missed their chance at getting value for him, O’Connor notes in the same piece. The scribe argues that if GM Doc Rivers had pulled the trigger years ago, the team would have much more depth today and players such as Paul Pierce and Raymond Felton wouldn’t be soaking up significant playoff minutes.
- Chris Paul is expected to re-sign with the Clippers, but O’Connor (same piece) wonders if the team should be worried about Paul finding a more attractive option in free agency. He speculates that the Spurs could be a threat should the franchise open up the necessary cap space to give Paul a maximum-salary contract.
- Sam Amick of USA Today (video link) isn’t sure owner Steve Ballmer is going to sign off on paying luxury tax payments again for a team that doesn’t have a clear path at a championship. In addition to Paul and Griffin searching for max deals this summer, J.J. Redick will be a free agent and Amick estimates that the Duke product will warrant a deal that pays him $18MM per year.
Break it up, it’s not going to work. Griffin should just retire
makes a whole lotta sense: retire when someone’s about to pay you millions of dollars a year.
raymond felton is a nice bench player
I know it’ll never happen, but man I’d love it if he came home to OKC, and as we have all seen, we could use him.
Blake will get plenty of max offers, if players like porter, pope will get one why won’t Blake ? Also Steven Adams some how got a max as well
$18 million? $25 million per year? Hundreds of dollars to go to a game? Thousands? Who cares about any of this foolishness. Go for a bike ride, its more fun and better for you.
The only thing you can count on with this group of players that they will disappoint you.
Doc Rivers is the most overrated Kochen pro sports.
The clippers never ever execute down the stretch in important games. They’re just a bunch of chokers.