Video review of the Blake Griffin trade
By Ku Khahil
Blake Griffin is on his way to Detroit. Was this a good trade for the Detroit Pistons? I talk about this trade in the YouTube video featured below.
The Detroit Pistons have been struggling. Losers of eight straight, Stan Van Gundy had to do something to save this season. He had to do something big.
Boy, did Van Gundy do something big.
Van Gundy and the Pistons traded Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, fan favorite Boban Marjonavic, a 2018 top-4 protected first rounder, and a 2019 second rounder for Blake Griffin, Willie Reed, and Brice Johnson.
This was a huge, blockbuster, controversial, risky move by Van Gundy. Griffin is a star, and has superstar talent no doubt.
But injuries and the amount of money Griffin is being paid makes this a high risk for the Pistons. Over the next few years, the Pistons will be paying Griffin and Andre Drummond close to 300 million dollars.
However, Detroit was not going to pull a talent like this in the free agency. It was very unlikely that Van Gundy would nail a talent like this in the draft, especially if you take in account Van Gundy’s draft history. As Van Gundy said today, when you have a chance at a player like this, you jump at the opportunity.
Griffin doesn’t fix the point guard issue for the Pistons, but adding Griffin may lessen the issue that is the point guard.
Griffin is an absolute elite offensive player, who has spread his game beyond the three point line (check out his game-winning three versus the Trail Blazers earlier in the year).
With Griffin, the ball wont be in the point guards hands as much. Along with this, the Pistons wont have to rely on Ish Smith and Dwight Buycks/Langston Galloway to create the offense as much.
While Griffin’s contract is huge, he’s also under contract for the foreseeable future. The Pistons wont have to worry about their star bolting out of Detroit in free agency until 2022.
Check out my video below to get more on the Griffin trade to Detroit.