Brock’s Random Thoughts: The Blake Griffin Mess

The Detroit Pistons are now in a conundrum that isn't entirely of their doing, but a major conundrum nontheless.

As you've probably heard. the Pistons announced on Monday night that they will bench former All-Star Blake Griffin (pictured) until they either buy him out or trade him.

This problem that they have is the entire doing of former head coach and team president Stan Van Gundy.  He got Griffin (and two other players) from the Los Angeles Clippers three years ago for forwards Tobias Harris and Avery Bradley, center Boban Marjanovich and some future draft choices.  Van Gundy said at the time, that while he didn't want to trade Tobias Harris, he felt the team needed a star.  So enter Blake Griffin.

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As it turns out, this trade has turned out to be a disaster.  If only for losing Harris (who's turned into an excellent player for Philadelphia). Griffin can't stay healthy, his explosiveness is gone, and he's been on load management for the last two seasons.

Now, the Pistons didn't sign Griffin to a 5-year deal worth $171 million.  The LA Clippers did.  But now, Detroit has to deal with the $36.8 million owed this season and the nearly $39 million player option that Blake would certainly exercise for the 2021-22 season.

The Pistons are 8-19 as of this writing and are in the middle of a rebuild under new executive Troy Weaver.  They could use the $70 million or so owed to Griffin to help supplement a young roster in the near future.  So a trade would work better than a buyout, but who wants him at that salary given his injury history.

Because of his injuries, he has almost no trade value, IMO.  So the best thing to do is buy him out and eat the money.  But that's about $70 million (subtracting the money he's made so far this season) to eat for another 18 months or so.  Do you really want to do that?

And we're talking about the Detroit Pistons.  Do you even care?