Blake Griffin on the Brooklyn Nets looks like a completely different player from the one that looked like an embarrassment with the Detroit Pistons this season. The 32-year old played uninspired basketball to begin his 11th NBA campaign with a Pistons team that was clearly headed for another bottom of the standings finish this 2020-21 season. Now, Griffin is playing tremendous playoff basketball for a Nets squad that is clicking on all cylinders in their second round series against the Milwaukee Bucks.
The 6-time All-Star is obviously no longer his old high-flying and acrobatic self that could score 30 on any given night. However, Griffin has embraced his role and has become some kind of an enforcer for Brooklyn. The 2009 no. 1 overall pick has been playing with a lot of toughness, diving for loose balls, getting physical with the larger Milwaukee front court downlow, and doing the dirty work with his hustle. It's a side we haven't seen from Griffin before. It's certainly the opposite of how he looked with the Pistons.
Griffin looked so washed in what ended up being his final days in Detroit. His steep decline from being an All-Star just a couple of years ago to becoming nearly unplayable looked so sorry to witness and many believed his days in the NBA were over. In hindsight, it's easy to see at this point that all Griffin needed was something to play for.
As mentioned, Blake Griffin is just two years removed from leading the Pistons to a playoff berth in 2019. He struggled with injuries in the 2019-20 season and just looked disinterested to even be part of Detroit this year. So what happened? Where did it all fall for Griffin and the Pistons?
When Griffin arrived in Detroit in a shocking trade with the Los Angeles Clippers midway through the 2017-18 season, he was supposed to be the franchise star that would lead a struggling franchise back to relevancy. As mentioned, in the following campaign, despite having a sub-par cast, Griffin powered the Pistons to a playoff appearance by having arguably his best all-around season.
At that point, Griffin had already lost a couple of inches from his bounce and became more of a grounded and skilled player. He became much more adept with his playmaking and improved tremendously as a shooter, making 189 3-pointers in 75 regular season appearances. His stellar 2018-19 that saw him post averages of 24.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 5.4 assists, earned him his 6th All-Star selection and his 5th All-NBA nod.
Unfortunately, Blake Griffin ended his regular season with an ailing left knee and his carried over into the 2019 playoffs. The Pistons were swept by the no. 1 seeded Milwaukee Bucks as Griffin barely looked like his All-Star self throughout the series. The former Oklahoma standout had surgery in his knee, which forced him to miss the early portions of the following campaign. Unfortunately, Griffin never truly recovered from the injury as he wound up playing just 18 games in the 2019-20 season before undergoing another knee surgery that ended his year.
Of course, everybody knows what happened in 2020-21. He appeared very disinterested and disgruntled wearing that Pistons uniform and his play on the court suggested that he had already checked out. Both sides eventually knew their partnership was coming to a close and Griffin and the Pistons ultimately agreed on a buyout.
Long story short, Griffin's tenure in Detroit began with a lot of promise. Unfortunately, Griffin's injury history eventually caught up with him and this forced the Pistons to go in a direction that doesn't fit the timeline of the aging forward.
At this point of his career, Blake Griffin obviously isn't a star anymore, but he does play like a star in his role with Brooklyn as he seeks to win his first NBA championship.
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