The NBA Trade Deadline got off to a rousing start on Monday afternoon, when the NBA world’s collective jaw hit the floor upon learning that Blake Griffin had been traded to the Detroit Pistons.
Here are the particulars of the deal from Adrian Wojnarowksi:
The Clippers and Pistons have agreed on a deal to trade Blake Griffin for Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, Boban Marjanovic, a first-round and a second-round draft pick, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 29, 2018
The Clippers and Pistons have agreed on a deal to trade Blake Griffin for Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, Boban Marjanovic, a first-round and a second-round draft pick, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 29, 2018
Sources: Protections on Detroit's 2018 first-round pick headed to Clippers — 2018: 1-4; 2019: 1-4; 2020: 1-4; 2021: unprotected. Detroit will send a 2019 second-round pick in the trade too.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 29, 2018
This move came as a shock to almost everyone around the NBA including Blake Griffin himself…
— Blake Griffin (@blakegriffin32) January 30, 2018
This trade makes it clear that these two franchises are heading in two directions. The Clippers have decided to blow it up and start clearing cap and acquiring draft picks in order to build from the ground up.
The Clippers essentially acquire an expiring contract in Avery Bradley, one young piece for the future in Tobias Harris on an acceptable deal and what is likely to be a solid 1st round pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. They also get a quick mulligan on their decision to go all in on Griffin this summer and save themselves $140 million over the next four years.
The Pistons meanwhile as losers of eight straight games are in desperation mode as a capped out team whose coach/GM knows that his job is on the line this season.
Now that we’ve established that this was a clear desperation move for the Pistons, the real question is will it work?
The Pistons now essentially have $75 million committed to three players over the next few seasons in Griffin, Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson. This gives them very little wiggle room to be able to reconstruct their roster around this core without depending on rookie contracts and very cheap veteran deals.
The first issue that comes to mind is the lack of floor spacing that will exist with Drummond and Griffin sharing the floor. While it is true that both players like to play on the block and both like to get the ball at the top of the key to see over the defense to hit cutters or kick it out to shooters, the Pistons are a top five team in the NBA in three-point shooting percentage which would suggest that the ability to stretch and space the floor may not be as huge of a deal as one would assume.
The problem is that they dealt their two best and most relied upon three-point shooters in this deal, Avery Bradley and Tobias Harris, who combined hit about 4.5 per game at a 39% clip.
That leaves two above average three point shooters on the roster who will immediately earn more minutes and may need to be their starting two and three moving forward: Reggie Bullock and Luke Kennard.
The Pistons point guard combo of Reggie Jackson and Ish Smith are below average shooters from deep and are most effective with the ball in their hands using their quickness to get into the paint and the rim, which will be more clogged with the presence of Griffin in addition to Drummond.
The other factor that makes this a very risky gamble by the Pistons is the lack of durabilility for Griffin. He is still in his prime at the age of 28 (he turns 29 in March), but he has averaged 54 games per season over the last four years and his recurring knee and hip issues make him a dangerous investment over the next four seasons, especially at an average of $35 million per season.
Griffin has played alongside another old-school, rim-protecting, rebound gobbling, rim-runner in DeAndre Jordan for his entire career so the adjustment may be easier for him, but it will take some time for Drummond who has gotten used to having plenty of space in the paint and the increased responsibility as being another play-maker and passer on offense. A role Griffin may take over now.
While any time you can acquire a star without trading a star seems like a deal worth considering for an NBA franchise, considering the fit, Griffin’s durability issues, the cap crunch and inability to reconstruct an ideal roster around Griffin and Drummond easily, this feels like an experiment that will crash and burn in Detroit.
They would have been better served trading Bradley, sitting Jackson, giving more minutes to their youthful players and trying to play their way into a top eight pick this summer in order to draft the point guard of the future and follow the model employed by Van Gundy with the Magic in surrounding Dwight Howard with shooters and spacing a decade ago in Orlando.
