Blake Griffin isn't the player you remember. The number one pick of the 2009 NBA draft rose to stardom almost immediately after taking the court for the Los Angeles Clippers, enthralling a nationwide audience with his supreme blend of leaping ability, power, and unabashed aggression.
Griffin won Rookie of the Year, made five straight All-Star games, and was named to four consecutive All-NBA teams with the Clippers before a rash of unrelated injuries began slowly chipping away at his prime in 2015.
Most assumed the Detroit Pistons overpaid for Griffin in advance of last year's trade deadline, especially considering the five-year, $171 million contract he signed the previous summer that was supposed to make him a “Clipper for life.” Was an aging, pricey superstar with a checkered injury history who relied on his athleticism more than any of his peers really worth the price of an ever-improving Tobias Harris and first-round pick? Probably not given how far Detroit was from championship contention, plus Griffin's awkward fit next to Andre Drummond, also signed for multiple seasons going forward on an onerous contract.
Nothing that transpired over the final half of last season proved that assessment wrong. The Pistons went 11-14 with Griffin in the lineup, posting a -1.2 net rating over that timeframe, 21st in the league. With Griffin and Drummond locked up long-term, no high-value prospects on the roster, and a lack of tradable assets, was there really any hope for Detroit in the future?
We still don't know the answer for sure, but Griffin's metamorphosis is the only reason why it's not a definitive ‘no.' The 29 year old has completely re-invented his game this season, a development he credits to the first offseason in years he's been healthy enough to focus on improving his game.
“It was huge just because I was able to build,” Griffin told Sports Illustrated's Jake Fischer of his first offseason as a Piston. “I always felt like the last two, three summers I was struggling trying to get healthy, trying to get to a place where I could start training camp. The first time I was able to get on the court was mid-August, and I was limited to 20 minutes of just spot-shooting, no movement or anything like that.”
The result is a playing style completely removed from what seemed possible when he was deemed a can't-miss prospect at Oklahoma. Even the high-level floor game Griffin flashed during his final two seasons in Los Angeles didn't portend the evolution he's undergone this season. Griffin is averaging a career-high 26.2 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game in 2018-19, the type of stellar numbers Steve Ballmer probably envisioned him putting up in a Clippers uniform for the rest of his career.
What nobody imagined, though, was Griffin suddenly becoming a de facto point forward with elite shot-making chops. He leads the league in touches per game with 94.5, just ahead of Nikola Jokic and James Harden. He ranks third in passes per game, behind Jokic and Ben Simmons. And most telling, Griffin is taking 3.9 pull-up triples per game, ninth-most in the NBA, hitting them at a 35.4 percent clip – right in line with Damian Lillard's accuracy on off-dribble threes.
Hindsight makes it easier to see these major changes to Griffin's game coming. He jacked 5.7 threes per game with Los Angeles before being traded, after all, and looked well on his way to annual MVP contention as a ball-dominant playmaker after averaging 25.5 points, 12.7 rebounds, and 6.1 assists per game during the Clippers' ill-fated 2015 postseason run. It's not like Griffin would be the first entrenched All-Star to expand his game in the thick of his prime, either.
But would he ever be healthy enough to get the time to do it? Griffin was last summer, finally, and put in enough work to emerge as a player far different than the one Detroit acquired this time last year. Whether the Pistons are able to surround him with enough help to become real threats in the Eastern Conference down the line remains be seen.
What's abundantly clear is that Griffin is a better player now than he's ever been before, and, health provided, seems primed to continue adding to his game in the future.
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