Blake Griffin will be a free agent this summer if he, as expected, terminates the final year of his contract. He was born in Oklahoma City. He attended the University of Oklahoma. His Los Angeles Clippers are playing the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday.
You know where this is going.
Asked about his connection to Oklahoma City and how it might relate to his free agency, per ESPN.com’s Andrew Han, Griffin maintained his longstanding stance that he’s not thinking that far ahead:
As the Clippers prepare to depart for Oklahoma City and try to avenge their lone loss of the season, Blake Griffin brushed aside notions that those close to him would be recruiting the star power forward to play for his hometown team after the season.
“People that I talk to and my friends and family from back home, I think they’re … I would say true friends and family, where they know that my main focus is this season and this team,” Griffin said after the Clippers defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 111-80 on Wednesday night. “And they know that I enjoy playing here and I love this team, coaching staff, everybody. So they know that that’s my main focus. So I think they pretty much know not to bring that up.”
Truth told, Griffin doesn’t really have to fret his Oklahoma City connection. People can ask questions about it, as they will, but the possibility of him signing with the Thunder this summer is pretty much dead.
Oklahoma City has more than $108 million in guaranteed contracts on its books next season. There is no way the front office opens up the necessary cap space it’ll take to hand Griffin a max contract. They would have to dump at least one of Steven Adams, Victor Oladipo or Enes Kanter, along with a few other pieces.
Impossible? No. With the exception of maybe Kanter, those are all very tradeable contracts. But the Thunder aren’t known for staging roster dumps to pursue other teams’ superstars. It would be weird if they embraced such practices now.
