It’s hard to imagine a trade scenario for Blake Griffin, according to a number of staff members on The Athletic. Griffin’s max salary and declining play make it nearly impossible to deal him. Griffin, who will reportedly sit until the Pistons can find a trade partner or buy him out, is a shell of his former All-Star self after multiple knee surgeries, as the story points out his inability to dunk and block shots any longer. The Celtics, Trail Blazers, Nets, Warriors, Lakers, Bucks, Kings and Spurs are all mentioned as possible destinations if Griffin is bought out.
We have more on the Pistons:
- If Griffin is able to pick his next destination, the situation will be a win-win for both him and the Pistons, Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press writes. GM Troy Weaver can continue to chart his own course with his multi-year rebuilding plan and the team’s younger players, like Eastern Conference Player of the Week Saddiq Bey, can get extended playing time.
- Griffin deserves to be remembered fondly by Detroit fans, James Edwards of The Athletic opines. Griffin led the team to the playoffs two seasons ago and continually played through injuries and pain. He showed the city’s trademark grit, diving for loose balls, barking at opponents and taking charges. Griffin gave everything he could to the team until his body betrayed him, Edwards adds.
- Given his age and early-season production, Wayne Ellington is the most logical player to be traded, Edwards writes in a separate piece. The Pistons might be able to flip the veteran shooting guard for a second-round pick. Delon Wright‘s versatility to play both guard positions could also make him an attractive trade target. The Sixers are one of the teams reportedly interested in Wright.
He’s averaging 12-5-4 in 31 minutes of action, shooting less than 40% on FG%’s.
A huge drop off from his career best 24.5-7.5-5.5 in 2018-19 with the pistons. In that year he shot as well from 3 and he shoots from the field this year.
At 30mil a season and another year left on his deal, I can’t see any team trading for him with that stat line. He’s just not at all worth it.
Which makes you ask the question for a rebuilding team like the piston is it worth giving up a first round pick to save about $50mil in cap space or just buy him out..
I think it’s more likely they buy him out and he signs with a team like the Celtics
How does a buyout work when he’s under contract for this season and next season? Does the whole cost of the buyout go on towards this year’s salary cap calculations or is it still spread over this season and next season?
The team and player settle on a smaller amount and it’s spread out over several years. Lakers are in the final year of Deng’s buyout. $5M towards the teams cap.
Usually they settle for a lesser amount but in this case Griffin has all the power really. He can easily just sit and get paid which he seems happy to do, it’s the pistons s who don’t want to pay him for doing nothing. So I wouldn’t be surprised if they had to pay out the full amount.
As for how it’s spreads across the years the pistons can choose how they spread it usually most team either take it as it is, in this case 30 mil for the next two years or they stretch it as long as possible, so in this case something like $10 mil over 6 seasons. These are just rough figures
ok I wasn’t sure but sounds like a buyout with more than one season to go on a contract just uses the stretch provision. so I guess Detroit will still be on the hook for $36 million this season then $12 million the following three seasons (maybe a little less if Griffin agrees because another team tells him they’ll sign him)
If they agree to a reduced amount, they allocate the money paid to the money owed by year. So, if he takes a 10% reduction, each year is reduced by 10%.
Only if he’s stretched will it carryover past the life of the contract (in this case, two years). Detroit is prohibited from stretching him though as you cannot have more than 15% of the salary cap tied up in dead money (via the stretch provision). Detroit already has almost $3M in dead money the next few years because of Dewayne Dedmon, so they do not have enough space to stretch Blake (good thing, too! Rip it off like a band-aid!)
He’ll be a Brooklyn Nets
Warriors need him and he needs them. Perfect fit, Steph might get them to a chip if he keeps up his extraordinarily-good, never-before-seen levels of play and they add a piece or two like Griffin.
Yes that’s right: Steph Curry might be having the best season of all-time, folks. Lock in.
Hahaha what a joke. His numbers aren’t quite as good as his unanimous MVP year. He’s playing really well but not the best season of all time.
Agree with you on Steph’s brilliance, but please stop it with the griffin talk Marty!
Griffin is absolutely terrible, expensive and one of the dirtiest players in the league
Keep him away from the Warriors!
Even if he could help, I’d rather lose than have him on my team
You don’t want a loser like that around our young guys, he’s an awful role model
(Cough) …I don’t like blake griffin
Shame on you, mon!
How can anyone not like such a great baller like Blake?
Really can’t understand it… never will, really, right?
Even in his prime Griffin, DeAndre, and CP3 never got past the 2nd round of the playoffs. How desperate would a team have to be to have any interest in him now?
He and paul were the two dirtiest players I’ve ever seen play together
They didn’t deserve to win
Clippers 2013-14: (lost in confidence semis)
CP3 Jordan Griffin
Paul was all nba first team, all defensive first team and steals leader
Griffin was all nab second team
Jordan led the league in rebounding
They also had
Matt Barnes 10-5-2
JJ Reddick 15-2-2
Jamal Crawford 18.5-2-3 (6th MOTY)
Darren Collinson 11-4-2
Not to mention Danny Granger, Glen Davis, Reggie Bullock and Jared Dudley.
Their coaching staff was Doc Rivers, Alvin Jentry and Tyron Lue.
So try again …
Last year was basically the same. Poor Clippers.
“Untradeable” is an exaggeration. There are other players with high salaries and declining production that he could be traded for.
I assume Wiz players are rebelling against Westbrook for instance, so he could be available… and Griffin is more valuable given his contract ends sooner.
You’re right. But the best case scenario might be trading for a longer bad contract and a player with a better fit like horford or K.love and maybe get a 2nd or a pick swap for taking on that extra year of salary.
I definitely think it doesn’t get any more clear than cannot jump to block a shot, or dunk.
Griffin, unless a non-scoring facilitator in the 2nd unit of a rebuilder? Is going where?
If this is accurate information no team is picking up Griffin as a player to play.
Griffin will 100 percent go to the Lakers if bought out to spite the Clippers
And whom are the Lakers going to kick off the roster to take on a hobbled shell of a former star?
The Pistons are most likely not gonna buy him out this year. Options are Blake gives up player option and is easily tradeable. (Highly unlikely). Blake gets traded for scraps or a longer contract with pick. Or he sits out all this year and they trade him or buy him out next year.
I believe the clippers-piston trade of Blake Griffin will go down as one of the most lopsided in history. It completely changed the trajectory of both franchises.
The clippers would not have been able to acquire Leonard and George had they not made this trade.
They wouldn’t have had Harris to trade to the sizers for draft picks and young players. They wouldn’t have had the extra cap space. They wouldn’t have had SGA to trade with the Harris draft picks for George.
The pistons could have made a Harris trade like the clippers. They could have had SGA. They could have cap space. They wouldn’t have George or Leonard, but they could have been a young team on the rise.
Griffin agreeing to a huge pay cut in a buyout is not out of the question. He has made over $200 million in his career plus endorsements. He knows his career is in the grave. If he wants to get a ring he needs to do it now.
If you have $200+ million in the bank is a ring worth another $40 million? Maybe it is…
Why would the Pistons want to trade Delon Wright? Wright is a good player. Twenty eight years old, not too old. Only getting paid $9 million a year which is a bargain for the Pistons. Wright is under contract for this season and next season. Seems a good contract for the Pistons to me. A keeper IMO.
The Pistons’ target year for contention is 2022-2023 and they are going to have a ton of cap room. The problem with Wright is that he’ll have a cap hold of over $16M that offseason. In other words, his Bird Rights are essentially worthless as his cap hold doesn’t have positive value. Chances are good that they’ll release that cap hold and pursue other FAs. If that is the case, get something while the getting is good.
(and this is coming from a Pistons fan who is very much a fan of Mr. Wright)
Just trying to learn more myself. After the 2021-2022 season is over. So Wright’s contract will be finished. With the Bird Rights, the Pistons will be able to exceed their cap to sign Wright if they so choose to? Obviously Wright will be at the point in his career in which he will be seeking a big long term contract.
I am not from Detroit. Could Detroit have resigned Christian Wood? The Rocket’s contract with Wood seems like a total steal to me $41 million for three seasons. Wood is only twenty five years old and a great player. I understand that Wood only really had the one good season.
Yes, the Pistons can go over the cap to resign Wright (once he becomes a FA) since they own his Bird Rights. However, his cap hold will be 190% of his prior year salary. So, their available cap space will be reduced by his cap hold, which (I believe) will be around $16M. The Pistons will have a ton of cap space that year, but unless you expect Wright to sign for more than $16M, his Bird Rights are kind of worthless.
On the flip side, Josh Jackson will be a FA at the same time. They’ll own his Early Bird Rights. The cap hold for an Early Bird Rights player is 130% of his prior salary, so his cap hold will work out to be about $6.5M. With Early Bird Rights, you can only sign a player to a contract worth 175% of their previous salary or 105% of the average salary, whichever is greater. This year the Early Bird amount was just over $10M (via average salary calc).
This Early Bird issue is one of the factors in them not resigning Wood. They wanted to use the Early Bird exception, but that would have capped him at about $10M/year. He was offered more which would have required Detroit to use cap space to match (he may have wanted out of Detroit anyway).
johnm I have seen no evidence that Wood wanted Detroit… I don’t read Detroit media but it seems like if this was so, it would be mentioned widely, as it would affect all teams that might bid. What held him back from getting more money— and appealing to new GM Weaver— was a rep for immaturity.
Fans of many teams are saying, why didn’t they offer to Wood. But sometimes FOs overscout!
BTW good numbers thekay… I just like a good speculation!