Detroit Pistons: 5 decisions they wish they could undo
Detroit Pistons: Why oh why did the Pistons trade for Blake Griffin?
The only reason that I didn’t put this number one is that the Blake Griffin era went so badly that the Pistons ended up bottoming out and getting the number one pick Cade Cunningham, so thanks for that, Blake!
The Griffin trade was a disaster from the beginning, as the Pistons had a very mediocre roster and he was pretty much washed and not a guy who could any longer carry a franchise.
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Not only that, the Detroit Pistons gave up a king’s ransom to get him, including one of their best players (Tobias Harris) and a couple of future draft picks. The Clippers were giddy to get out from under Griffin’s albatross of a contract, which was one of the worst in the NBA at the time and still haunts the Pistons to this day.
The Clippers were able to use the package the Pistons sent them to rebuild their roster. In fact, the Clippers ended up flipping Tobias Harris for a huge haul, which begs the question of why the Pistons didn’t do the same thing.
The Pistons should have been rebuilding themselves at this point but instead doubled down on a veteran who had exactly one high-level season left in his legs.
Griffin did give the Pistons some big moments, like his 50-point game against Philly, and did drag the team to the playoffs to get swept.
In the end he was bought out and headed to the Nets to chase rings. I don’t have any ill will towards Griffin, who did give everything he had in Detroit, but this trade should have never happened in the first place and just prolonged the inevitable rebuild that we are seeing now.