Detroit Pistons: It’s too easily forgotten how dominate Blake Griffin can be

Blake Griffin established himself as one of the most entertaining players of the entire 2010’s, even with the Detroit Pistons. This is too easily forgotten.

Long before his days with the Detroit Pistons, Blake Griffin was creating highlights on a nightly basis that are still played to this day.

As one of the former faces of the franchise with the Los Angeles Clippers, he formed a dominate trio with Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan. They were frequently finding themselves in the top ten plays of every SportCenter episode, and were appropriately refereed to as “Lob City”.

Griffin was a noted force in the paint from the very first time he stepped onto the floor.

Within the first five seasons of his NBA career, he had landed a spot of five consecutive All-Star teams. His masterful finishes at the rim and his magnificent rebounding was catching the eyes of fans all around the world.

He was commercially successful as well, finding himself in dozens of television ads. He wasn’t just one of the faces of the franchise, but one of the faces of the entire league.

Issues began to form when people started to notice two major reoccurring themes. The Clippers couldn’t win in the playoffs, and Griffin was too often finding himself injured.

The most notable series loss that Los Angeles endured during the Lob City era was in the second round of the 2015 playoffs. The Clippers found themselves holding a 3-1 series lead over the Houston Rockets when everything fell apart.

The Rockets went on to win the series. Los Angeles had a point differential of +35 through the first four games, but got crushed in the final four, falling to an astonishing -46.

Griffin averaged a remarkable 26.9 points, 12.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game on 55.5 percent shooting in the series. He only attempted 4 three-pointers throughout the entire seven games.

This was arguably their best shot at a championship. With what would have been a match up with the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals, they very well could have taken that series and went on the beat the Cavaliers in the Finals.

After this loss though, everything went on a steep decline. The Clippers failed to make it out of the first round the next two seasons and out of their 13 total playoff games, Griffin only appeared in seven of them due to injury.

In 2017 he was traded to Detroit in a move that was seen as essential for the franchise. He was a type of player that the Pistons could only acquire through the virtue of trade.

After spending a few months getting a feel for his teammates, and spending an entire off season getting his body right, Detroit was going to have their first full season with Griffin. What he produced on the floor was nothing short of amazing.

It doesn’t matter that they finished with a record of 41-41. After averaging 24.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 6.2 assists, he found himself making the All-Star team for the first time since the 2014-2015 season.

Along with that, he was awarded with Third Team All-NBA honors.

He transcended his three-point shot and took it to a level that no one ever anticipated he could reach. Griffin was attempting 7.0 threes per game, and had come a long way from shooting just four total in a seven game stretch in 2015.

You could easily attribute upwards of 80 percent of the wins Detroit saw that year to Griffin’s heroics. His dominance at the rim and his heightened jump shooting capabilities launched the optimism of Pistons fans into a new area.

Unfortunately however, he opened the 2019-2020 season still dealing with some lingering knee issues that he suffered at the end of the previous year. Any time he was on the floor, he was noticeably not okay.

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Finally he decided to undergo season ending surgery, and thus continues the narrative that has always surrounded him.

The rhetoric surrounding Griffin throughout his entire career is that he’s unable to win meaningful games and isn’t able to stay healthy. Unfortunately, both of those have largely been true.

His overall durability moving forward will be a big question the Pistons have to face, and whether or not he can continue to play at a high level remains to be seen.

Because of all of this, it’s easy to think of him as someone who’s simply just unable to stay healthy, but that’s just unfair to him as a player.

One of the most entertaining and dominate performers of the entire 2010’s, Griffin deserves far more credit as one of the best players in the world for a consistent six year period.

With the Pistons you weren’t seeing his highlights on Bleacher Report or ESPN because he wasn’t on a winning team, but he as an individual was outstanding. Had Detroit won over 50 games, he would have easily been in the MVP conversation.

It’s not fair that he’s been relegated into a category of players whose bodies held them back from reaching their full potential. The height of his career is and was as one of the most dominate scorers in all of basketball.

Blake Griffin deserves more credit.