On Monday, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news that the Los Angeles Clippers traded Blake Griffin to the Detroit Pistons. The full deal is as follows: The Clippers send Blake Griffin, Brice Johnson, and Willie Reed to the Pistons for Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, Boban Marjanovic, a protected 2018 first-round pick, and a 2019 second-round pick.
The Clippers are trying to convince people that they are not rebuilding, but don't let them fool you. That's exactly what this trade means. When looking back on it, the Clippers' decision to trade Chris Paul to the Rockets was already an indicator that they were looking to rebuild, but their decision to part ways with Blake Griffin just confirms it. It also appears to only be a matter of time before they part ways with Lou Williams and DeAndre Jordan as well.
Given that Blake Griffin is 28 years old and won't hit unrestricted free agency until the summer of 2022, I'm surprised the Clippers made this move. I understand that they fell short of their goals of winning a title during the Chris Paul era, but Griffin is still young enough to build around for the next five years. I would have thought the Clippers would have instead decided to hang onto Griffin and build the whole team around him as opposed to shipping him off when he actually might have his best basketball ahead of him.
Advocates of the move will say that Blake Griffin is too injury prone and not a guy who you can build a championship team around. The former has some merit to it, but I'm not convinced either claim is true. I've always liked Griffin's game and he has shown the willingness to improve his game every season. Griffin is already one of the top players in the game and as I said earlier he's not done getting better. The Clippers could have chosen to make Griffin their franchise centerpiece and continue to build an exciting brand of basketball in Los Angeles. Instead, they've chosen to ship off their most exciting player with the hopes of building a championship contender through the draft and free agency.
If you are guaranteed to draft the second coming of Hakeem Olajuwon or something along those lines, then parting ways with Blake Griffin makes sense. But there's no guarantee the Clippers get such a piece via the draft or free agency. Tanking is always a risky proposition because it relies on getting the right pick via lottery, selecting the right player, and also the health of that player. When you have a known commodity like Blake Griffin that has panned out and is committed to getting better, you hang onto that player every time unless you know you have really good odds of getting something better in return. The Clippers don't seem likely to get a better piece, which is why I'm not feeling this move for them.
It feels like today's NBA has embraced this "championship or bust" mentality and while I certainly respect teams for wanting to go all out to win a title, you need to do that with a strategy that will actually pay off. Trading away your franchise player because he hasn't yet led you to a title isn't always the right move to make. Sometimes it's better to be patient and see what you can accomplish with that player as opposed to blowing the whole thing up and wishing upon a star.
Blake Griffin is one of the top players in the league and is not going to be an easy guy to replace. The fact that this move doesn't replace his production or guarantee that the Clippers will replace his production down the line is reason enough for me to dislike the move. I question whether or not this move will pay off for the Clippers in the way that they think it will.
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