By Liam McKeone
The Pistons shook up their team and surprised just about everyone in the NBA when they traded for Blake Griffin last week. Detroit has turned into a smaller basketball market after their run of success in the early 2000s, meaning they aren’t exactly a highly-sought free-agent destination; it makes a lot of sense, especially for a team that is trying to reestablish itself in downtown Detroit, to trade for an exciting and marketable player in Griffin. He didn’t come cheap, however. Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, Boban Marjanovich and a 2018 first-round pick was the cost to bring Griffin and a pair of back-ups to Motown. The Pistons got off to a roaring start this year largely thanks to Harris’s improved scoring and Bradley’s presence on the defensive end. However, they faltered down the stretch, and before the Griffin trade, were in the middle of an eight-game losing streak and sitting well below five hundred.
The biggest thing the Pistons gave up for Griffin was Harris’s spacing. While Griffin is a more established and consistent scorer than Harris, Harris was in the midst of a career year from deep, shooting 41 percent on about six attempts per game and preventing the paint from getting clogged up on offense when playing with Drummond, who can’t shoot outside of ten feet. Griffin is shooting 34 percent on the same amount of shot attempts as Harris, so the drop-off there is unmistakable. However, Griffin is a much more respected scorer than Harris; this has been Harris’s breakout year, but everyone knows the damage Griffin can do when he gets going. No defender is going to stray very far from Griffin to help with Drummond down in the post, no matter what his three-point percentage is on the year.
Otherwise, it won’t be too hard for SVG to integrate Griffin into the team’s offensive scheme. Griffin played with a center like Drummond in DeAndre Jordan, so the blueprint is there. The biggest difference Griffin will see lies within Drummond’s passing. Unlike Jordan, Drummond is a skilled passer from the high post, and SVG has run the offense through him on occasion this year, especially with Reggie Jackson in and out of the lineup with various injuries.
With Bradley gone and Jackson’s status of perpetually banged up, this team will be heavily relying on their two big men to drive them to victory. So far, it’s been working out pretty well; since the trade on the 29th, the Pistons have rattled off three straight wins, and Griffin has seemed to settle in nicely, averaging 20 points, 9.5 rebounds, and six assists over that time span. They haven’t exactly been spectacular defensively, but that will get better once everyone gets adjusted to the new scheme and the guys around them.
Ultimately, this may be the trade that brings the Pistons back to relevance. The East has never looked more vulnerable, and a team with a superstar catching fire at the right time could make a shocking deep playoff run. Detroit didn’t have that superstar variable until the Griffin trade. Injuries may derail this hype train, but the Pistons are a team to watch heading into the break.
