Blake Griffin positive about Detroit Pistons

Blake Griffin likes his added role with the Detroit Pistons of being an advisor to younger players, as well as a standout on the court. Unlike other highly-paid players, he is not publicly asking to jump teams.

The Detroit Pistons’ Blake Griffin has one of the highest salaries in the NBA this season at $36,810,996, according to Spotrac.com.

The 6-foot-10 power forward ranks eighth overall in league salary, befitting a five time All-NBA performer. However, there is something that he does not share with most of his highly-paid brethren.

Griffin is not publicly asking to leave the Detroit Pistons and chase a team with a better chance at a championship.

As the Pistons opened up training camp on Tuesday, Griffin spoke about his role in Detroit, his health and his willingness to help with such a young roster.

Among the players with the top nine salaries in the NBA, only the Warriors’ Steph Curry, Griffin and the Wizards’ John Wall are on the same team they were just three years ago. And Wall has not played in two years due to injury, and he is rumored to be asking to be traded.

Griffin is not demanding to be traded. While NBA Twitter has swirled with various trade rumors, Griffin has not worried about them. He is ready to play for the Pistons.

According to James Edwards II, Griffin said:

"“Trade talk doesn’t really bother me. I’ve been doing this for too long. I have a great relationship with the front office. When it came to trades, I didn’t spend a lot of time paying attention to.”"

Although new Detroit general manager Troy Weaver has been on the job only a couple of months, he seems to have a good relationship with Griffin. It looks like Griffin trusts Weaver enough that he would contact him if a trade every became really viable.

Of course, this is a very different team than the one Griffin played 18 games for last season, until being sidelined with a knee injury.

Griffin is one of only four players returning from last year’s roster. He, Derrick Rose and Wayne Ellington will be the only ones over 30 as the team has been flooded with very young players. Eight players have two years or less of NBA experience, including five rookies.

Outside of working out with Saddiq Bey, one of three first-round picks, in Los Angeles, Griffin has not really been able to get to know the other rookies.

Due to COVID-19, the Henry Ford Performance Center had not been open to players since the mini-camp held before the draft (which Griffin did not attend).

Players are limited to individual workouts under NBA protocols for the first five days. The team will not actually be together for training camp until the weekend, or possibly Monday.

Griffin is only 31, so he is hardly an old-timer. But on this squad, he has a lot more experience than most of his teammates.

He is actually looking forward to being a mentor to all the inexperienced players. He remembered how much he learned from Chris Paul when he started out with the Los Angeles Clippers.

What Griffin does knows about the roster, he is excited about, according to Lauren L. Williams:

"“It has been a lot of changes. But I think that I was sort of prepared for that. (It) sounded like that’s what was gonna happen,” said Griffin. “And I like the pieces that we got. I think we got a lot of guys who are, you know, most importantly, great guys, and also guys that compete and play hard.”"

Griffin is 11 months away from knee surgery. It is basically the same knee problem he had in the 2019 playoffs finally getting dealt with. He says he is healthy and ready to play after an arduous rehab..

Now, is this all a smokescreen and Griffin is simply playing the good soldier until the Pistons get a good offer to ship him out? Possibly, but it almost does not matter.

A team’s culture is established from the top. Players, particularly young players, take their cue from the best player.

If they see Griffin is being positive about the team, encouraging his teammates and making no waves about his future, this can do nothing but benefit Detroit.

Obviously, if Griffin can return to the player he was before the injury, averaging 24.5 points for the 2018-19 season, that would really benefit the team where it counts most, the win column.

While some NBA teams paying out large contracts might be concerned  entering the season with those player’s attitudes causing a large problem, Detroit will not have to deal with that.

With Griffin so publicly on board with what the Pistons organization is doing, coach Dwane Casey can simply focus on what kind of team he will put on the floor. That will be time-consuming in itself.

Thanks to Blake Griffin, the only drama the Pistons will have to deal with is trying to win games with its rebuilt roster.