Blake Griffin enters unrestricted free agency with some question marks but undoubtedly the Los Angeles Clippers star will wind up with a max contract. The big mystery is whether he’ll re-sign with the Clippers or seek a fresh start elsewhere.
The Clippers have the advantage of being able to offer him a five-year deal worth approximately $175MM. He would have to accept a maximum of four years and $130MM elsewhere but opt out clauses are often used by agents to circumvent those restrictions.
Griffin’s last two seasons have been sidetracked by injuries. He appeared in just 35 games in 2015/16 because of a quad injury. This past season, a knee injury limited him to 61 regular-season games. He missed the last four games of the opening-round playoff series against the Jazz with a toe injury that required surgery.
Griffin’s defense, and occasionally his character, has also been criticized. But there’s no denying his offensive talent. A power forward who can average 21.6 PPG, 8.1 RPG and 4.9 APG, as he did in his walk year, will have plenty of suitors on the market.
The Celtics, Wizards, Thunder and Heat are some of the teams expected to pursue him. Boston needs a big-time power forward to get over the hump in the Eastern Conference and Washington needs more balance to its backcourt-oriented attack. Griffin could return to his home state of Oklahoma and take some of the scoring and playmaking burden off Russell Westbrook. He could be “the man” for a club like Miami and even the Lakers could be an option, considering that he’d be surrounded with young talent and their No. 1 scoring option.
Of course, the Clippers will do everything they can to keep their core of Griffin, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan intact, despite the playoff flops in recent years.
That brings us to our question of the day: Which team do you think unrestricted free agent Blake Griffin will sign with and why?
Please take to the comments section and share your opinion on this topic. We look forward to what you have to say.
Blake with Russel a Dream for next years …
Thats a Conference Finals exit. Maybe if McDermott develops into a reliable 3rd option yea
I think he’ll sign with the Supersonics.
No, they dont exist anymore? Fine, the Clippers. LAC will probably sign him back but may look to trade him sometime next season.
Wtf lol
Dont see Griffin leaving, he loves LA. With Paul and Blake back they should open up more caproom to sign Bogdanovic and slot him at the 3. He gives them the perimeter shooter they need at the 3 since Moute can’t shoot a rock in a ocean.
The Paul/Griffin experiment has run its course. Paul knows that, that’s why there’s chatter of him signing elsewhere.
Any team signing Griffin is guaranteed to have him for 40% of the regular season until he punches something and is sidelined for the remainder of the season
Nah don’t see them breaking up the band. Paul isn’t turning down a 200 million dollar deal and San Antonio would have to gut their caproom and depth to open up room for Paul. I do think he would do wonders for Aldridge and help Leonard with playmaking duties but It comes down to the money at the end, at this stage in Paul’s career he needs to take the money.
Money is important for sure that’s why he will pry end up in San Antonio. With income taxes at 13% in Cali and 0% in Texas he will actually make more money annually to go to the spurs then if he stays in LA.
SA can’t offer him 200 million
Right but the tax narrows the difference and he’s still making an insane amount of money either way so he might just take a little less
Miami is the most realistic aside from LA. OKC and WAS don’t have the cap space to make it happen and Boston will be primarily focused on Hayward.
He’s staying in LA
That’s the most likely outcome, but I could see LAC not wanting to sign him to a 5 year max. Miami can only offer 4 years but when LA could and may not want to offer 5 years Miami’s offer will seem better. Riley will pitch him on getting healthy and being the face of the franchise.
I could see him going to Miami
I just don’t think he’s good enough for a max contract. Even without the injuries he’s good but idk if I would pay him such a large portion of the cap, could prevent building around him.
He’s good enough when healthy. He’s probably more valuable away from Paul too because he might get more opportunities to be a playmaker.
I have to agree. He’s a bit overrated.
I think they both leave the LAC
Griffin can dunk. That’s it. Riley,Ainge,pop are too smart to pay big for so many limitations and frequent injuries. Baller may not pay big $…wonder what Doc will recommend. He stays.
The Lakers might be able to make a run at him, with the promise of a PG and Blake team next year.
I’m not saying it could or will happen but it’s possible. Black to Charlotte.
Blake