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Blake Griffin Talks Pistons, Free Agency, Playoffs

January 2nd, 2021 at 11:54am CST by marksuleymanov

Entering his 11th NBA season, Blake Griffin is not just one of the NBA’s most recognizable names — he is also one of the league’s longest-tenured players. The Pistons forward opened up about his future both on and off the court in a recent interview with The New York Times’ Sopan Deb.

Griffin evolved from a human highlight reel as a younger player to a multi-faceted scoring weapon with a consistent three-point shot. However, despite his strong play, no team that Griffin has been part of has reached an NBA conference final. As a veteran on a young, rebuilding team, Griffin may not be in great position to change that, but he’s staying positive, as he tells Deb.

Check out some of the highlights below:

Griffin on the Pistons’ young group of rookies:

“I’ve also just really enjoyed it, especially this group of rookies that we have now. They’re great players, but great kids. They want to learn. They come. They ask you questions.”

Griffin on his goal of a deep playoff run:

“The individual awards and these things are fine, and I’m appreciative of them, but I just want to win. Not making it to a conference final, yeah, it does gnaw at me. Not to the point where I’m losing sleep over it. But that’s the main goal — I want to win.”

Griffin on the possibility of reaching free agency after the current season (he has a player option for 2021/22):

“It’s not a decision that I have to make in the immediate future. And I know, I’m sorry, I’m just kind of running around that question, but it’s just true. Things can change.”

Doumbouya Scrounging For Minutes

January 1st, 2021 at 5:29pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Pistons second-year forward Sekou Doumbouya has received limited playing time in the early going, Rod Beard of the Detroit News notes.

The Pistons’ first-round pick in 2019 has not played more than 13 minutes in the team’s first four games. Dwane Casey said that Doumbouya has to deal with the fact he’s backing up Blake Griffin, who missed Friday’s game against Boston with a concussion.

“Blake’s going to get the majority of those minutes and (Doumbouya’s) got to make his minutes count. If Blake’s not going, (Doumbouya’s) minutes will get ratcheted up,” the Pistons head coach said. “It’s that situation, where he’s behind an All-Pro guy, and that’s his challenge right now.”

Pistons lottery pick Killian Hayes has struggled thus far as the starting point guard and Casey isn’t surprised, Beard writes in a separate story. The lack of practice time due to the shortened offseason put Hayes in a difficult situation, since the Pistons are intent on giving him experience. “We threw him in the fire — which was really unfair to him, because there’s no Summer League, there’s no August or September (workout time),” Casey said. “You’re going right from working out in Florida to going against NBA players.”

New Piston Grant Enjoying Bigger Role

December 31st, 2020 at 7:45pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

After signing a $60MM deal with the rebuilding Pistons this offseason, forward Jerami Grant is getting the increased offensive role he was hoping for when he left the championship-contending Nuggets, per Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press.

“It’s definitely a bigger role for me, that’s one of the reasons why I came here,” Grant said. Through his first four games for the Motor City, all losses, the versatile wing is tops among the Pistons in minutes played (149), three-point attempts (30), and free-throw attempts (21), as well as shot attempts and makes (66 and 31). He is also averaging a career-high 37.3 MPG.

Pistons Notes: Growing Pains, Hayes, Griffin

December 30th, 2020 at 9:27am CST by Luke Adams

The Pistons, who are off to an 0-4 start this season, are prepared to go through some growing pains as Isaiah Stewart, Saddiq Bey, Killian Hayes, and their other youngsters get acclimated to the NBA. “This year is about getting those guys ready, developing, teaching – and it’s painful,” head coach Dwane Casey said, per Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. “We’re going through it right now and we’ve just got to learn from those situations and we’ve just got to be ready when they throw it up again.”
As Rod Beard of The Detroit News details, both Hayes and Blake Griffin left the Pistons‘ loss on Tuesday due to injuries — Hayes suffered a right ankle sprain, while Griffin entered the concussion protocol after taking an elbow to the jaw. It’s unclear so far whether Hayes and Griffin are being considered day-to-day or whether they may be ruled out for multiple games.

Patience Needed On Pistons' Plan With Youngsters

December 28th, 2020 at 6:29pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Pistons are easing their young players into the rotation and that’s to be expected, James Edwards III of The Athletic writes.

Veterans Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose, both of whom sat out Monday’s game at Atlanta, played heavy minutes in the double overtime loss to Cleveland on Saturday. Lottery pick Killian Hayes sat during crunch time, while Saddiq Bey has played only six minutes. The Pistons’ other first-round pick, Isaiah Stewart, didn’t play at all in the first two games.

It’s unrealistic to expect all of the Pistons’ developmental players to log 15-plus minutes a game at this point but their playing time will increase as the season progresses, Edwards adds. Hayes and Bey started against the Hawks.

Pistons owner Tom Gores rubber-stamps new GM Troy Weaver’s roster moves, according to Rod Beard of the Detroit News. Detroit has only four holdovers on its 15-man roster and Weaver engineered trades to draft Bey and Stewart. “To get three first-round picks I think was a win for us,” Gores said. “We have to see how those young men develop, but I’d say the thing Troy did right away was he really owned this. He didn’t sit back and worry about it. He was thoughtfully aggressive, and he owned it.”

Pistons Sign Frank Jackson To Two-Way Deal

December 27th, 2020 at 5:30pm CST by Dana Gauruder

December 27: Detroit has officially inked Jackson to his two-way contract, the team announced in a press release.

December 25: The Pistons are signing guard Frank Jackson to a two-way contract, Eric Woodyard of ESPN tweets.

The Pistons are one of just three teams with an open two-way slot. Rookie guard Saben Lee holds the other two-way contract with Detroit.

Jackson was waived by the Thunder earlier this week and was not claimed. Jackson was the last cut from the Oklahoma City training camp roster.

Jackson was the victim of a numbers game, as OKC already had 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts and he had a partially guaranteed deal. He signed a two-year, minimum-salary contract with the Thunder in the offseason but only $250K was guaranteed.

Jackson, the 31st overall pick in the 2017 draft out of Duke, missed his entire rookie season with a foot injury, but appeared in 120 games for the Pelicans over the last two years, averaging 7.2 PPG, 1.8 RPG, and 1.1 APG on .422/.319/.743 shooting during that time.

The 22-year-old was eligible for restricted free agency this fall, but the Pelicans opted not to tender him a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent.

Gores Rejects Call To Sell Pistons

December 27th, 2020 at 8:59am CST by Arthur Hill

A nearly empty arena took away some of the excitement of Andre Drummond‘s return to Detroit on Saturday night, but the experience was still memorable for the Cavaliers‘ center, who spent the first seven and a half years of his career with the Pistons, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.

Drummond was a franchise cornerstone from the time he was taken in the 2012 draft, but he became expendable at the February trade deadline when Detroit decided to shed salary and embrace rebuilding. Pistons coach Dwane Casey has watched Drummond a few times since the trade and has noticed his growth on offense since arriving in Cleveland.

Gores is rejecting a call to sell the Pistons because of his ownership of a prison telecom company that is accused of charging inmates up to $15 for a 15-minute phone call, according to Eric Woodyard of ESPN.

NBA Teams With Open Roster Spots To Start Season

December 24th, 2020 at 12:23pm CST by Luke Adams

Now that the regular season is underway, no NBA team is carrying more than 17 players in total — 15 on standard contracts and two on two-way deals. However, not every team is making use of all 17 roster spots available to them.

Currently, 12 of the league’s 30 teams have at least one open roster spot, either on their regular roster or in their two-way slots.

Those dozen teams have different reasons for not carrying a 15th man on their standard roster. For some clubs, the decision is likely financially motivated, since an open roster spot means not having to pay an extra player.

Some teams may want to maintain the roster flexibility that an open roster provides — it can allow a club to act quickly and decisively in the event of an injury or a two-for-one trade opportunity.

A handful of teams actually can’t add a 15th man at this point, since they’re too close to their hard cap and won’t be able to fit another minimum-salary contract below that hard cap until later in the season.

With the G League season not yet underway, a healthy team may simply decide there’s no point in filling the 15th spot with a developmental player who won’t see any game action. That may also be the reason why some teams haven’t yet filled both their two-way contract slots.

Listed below, with the help of our roster counts breakdown, are the teams that aren’t carrying full rosters.

Teams with an open 15-man roster spot:

Charlotte Hornets
Houston Rockets *
Los Angeles Clippers *
Los Angeles Lakers *
Milwaukee Bucks *
Minnesota Timberwolves
New Orleans Pelicans
Portland Trail Blazers
San Antonio Spurs
Utah Jazz

Note: An asterisk (*) denotes that the team can’t currently sign a 15th man due to the hard cap.

Teams with an open two-way slot:

Detroit Pistons
Phoenix Suns
Portland Trail Blazers

Weaver Plans To Stay Aggressive

December 22nd, 2020 at 9:05pm CST by Dana Gauruder

As we noted, the Pistons remade their roster more than any team in the league. New GM Troy Weaver promises to continue making changes. “We are going to stay aggressive,” Weaver said, per Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports. Owner Tom Gores is confident that Weaver has the franchise on the right path. “He is concise in how he sees talent. He sees it on a micro-level,” Gores said. “I’ve met a lot of executives who know basketball. Troy is just on a whole different level.”
The Pistons have a program that includes night sessions and extended practice sessions for players that would ordinarily be on their G League squad, coach Dwane Casey told Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter link) and other media members. The Pistons had been affiliated with the Grand Rapids Drive but are switching to the newly-created Motor City Cruise in Detroit next season. They are not expected to participate in the G League bubble season in Atlanta.

NBA Teams With Most, Least Roster Continuity

December 22nd, 2020 at 10:53am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s offseason felt awfully busy, with free agency opening just two days after the draft and training camps starting about 10 days later. As hectic as those couple weeks were though, they actually didn’t feature a ton of player movement relative to a typical offseason.

A year ago, for instance, when we looked at the teams with the most and least roster continuity from year to year, we found that only one team was bringing back 13 players (counting two-ways) from its previous squad, while a total of four had 11 or more returning players.

This time around, seven clubs are bringing back 13 or more players from their end-of-season 2019/20 rosters, and a total of 18 teams will have 11 or more returning players. The Bulls and Pacers lead the way, having carried over 14 players apiece.

While the condensed offseason made for an exciting November, the quick turnaround also likely played a major part in teams’ decisions to stand relatively pat. Without a Summer League or the opportunity to conduct offseason mini-camps, teams haven’t had a lot of time to integrate new players, and have generally opted for as much continuity as possible.

Of course, while that may have been the general rule for the 2020 offseason, it certainly doesn’t apply to every team. A year ago, seven teams – including the eventual-champion Lakers – brought back just six players from their 2018/19 rosters. This time around, two clubs had that much turnover.

Of those two clubs, one – the Pistons – exhibited an impressive disregard for roster continuity, retaining just four players (Blake Griffin, Derrick Rose, Sekou Doumbouya, and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk) from last season’s roster. That’s the lowest number of returning players a team has had to start a season since the 2017 Celtics.

Here are the number of returning players for each of the NBA’s 30 teams, from most to fewest:

Chicago Bulls: 14
Indiana Pacers: 14
Boston Celtics: 13
Brooklyn Nets: 13
Memphis Grizzlies: 13
Miami Heat: 13
San Antonio Spurs: 13
Golden State Warriors: 12
Orlando Magic: 12
Cleveland Cavaliers: 11
Los Angeles Clippers: 11
Los Angeles Lakers: 11
Minnesota Timberwolves: 11
New York Knicks: 11
Sacramento Kings: 11
Toronto Raptors: 11
Utah Jazz: 11
Washington Wizards: 11
Charlotte Hornets: 10
Dallas Mavericks: 10
Denver Nuggets: 10
Portland Trail Blazers: 9
Atlanta Hawks: 8
Houston Rockets: 8
New Orleans Pelicans: 8
Phoenix Suns: 8
Milwaukee Bucks: 7
Philadelphia 76ers: 7
Oklahoma City Thunder: 6
Detroit Pistons: 4