After working a buyout with the Pistons Friday, Blake Griffin appears headed to Brooklyn, according to various reports on Twitter.
The Brooklyn Nets are believed to be leaders to sign six-time All-Star Blake Griffin, sources tell me and @JLEdwardsIII. Rival teams with interest are expecting Griffin to choose Nets as a title favorite for chance to win a championship.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 5, 2021
The Nets are regarded as a strong contender for Blake Griffin given Brooklyn’s rise and his longstanding relationship with players there and the Celtics have also expressed interest, league sources say.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) March 5, 2021
Adrian Wojnarowski, who broke the buyout story, also reported that the Nets were among the leaders for the six-time All-Star’s services.
The Brooklyn Nets, Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat and Portland Trail Blazers are expected to be among the teams Griffin will be considering for his next stop, sources tell ESPN.
Griffin, 31, is expected to make a decision on his next team after conversations with prospective teams, sources said.
Assuming the buyout and waiver takes place Friday, Griffin would be an unrestricted free agent by Sunday, the day of the NBA All-Star game … and the end of the Nets three 10-day contracts held by Andre Roberson, Tyler Cook and Iman Shumpert.
Griffin is close to DeAndre Jordan, with whom he played eight years as part of the Clippers‘ “Lob City.” He also worked out with the Nets “Big Three” in Los Angeles last summer and played two years in Detroit with Bruce Brown.
Griffin was owed $76 million over this year and next. No word on how much Griffin will receive, but if he requires more than a vets minimum deal to sign, the Nets have the taxpayers MLE (as long as Joe Tsai is willing to pay more in luxury tax.) Yossi Gozlan, Hoopshype’s capologist did the math…
If the Nets need to use an exception to sign Griffin, it makes sense to use their MLE on him since they could use the DPE to acquire an expiring contract in a trade later.
Assuming he gets waived today, Griffin will clear waivers on Sunday. Nets MLE will be worth $5.36M then. https://t.co/gROgtmVqF7
— Yossi Gozlan (@YossiGozlan) March 5, 2021
Griffin, of course, has lost more than a bit of his once staggering athleticism to injury. Over the past several years, he’s had issues with both knees, his right big toe, his right ankle, with the most recent event, arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in April 2019, leading to a big drop-off.
Kevin Pelton of ESPN wrote this following news of the impending buyout…
As has been much noted, Griffin has yet to successfully dunk this season. Per analysis of data from Basketball-Reference.com, Griffin is the only player taller than 6-foot-7 to attempt more than 150 shots this season without a single dunk.
Last season, when he was limited to 18 games, Griffin averaged 15.5 points, 4.7 boards and 3.3 assists. Here’s video all his field goals from 2019-20.
This season, he played only 20 games before the Pistons shut him down late last month. He was averaging 12.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists. Two years ago, when he was last healthy, Griffin averaged 24.5 points, 7.5 boards and 5.4 assists while shooting 36.2 percent from deep.
“If Blake is bought out, there would be significant interest, but how much of a savings is Blake willing to take?” executive for an Eastern Conference playoff team told HoopsHype’s Mike Scotto last month. “He could provide a spark off of the bench. If he’s healthy, he could start if the team had a need, but he’s probably more of a rotation player right now.”
Similarly, Zach Lowe on a recent episode of his “Lowe Post” podcast suggested that Griffin, with his BBIQ, post and passing, could fit as a back-up 5.
