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Following his arrival in what's will be his new home from now on — Detroit, Michigan — questions about his departure didn't take long to roll in. Among them was if there was any sense of regret for not negotiating a no-trade clause with the Clippers when the chance arose this offseason.
“I want to play for an organization that wants me to play there,” said Griffin, according to ESPN's Nick Friedell and Rod Beard of The Detroit News. “This is and organization that wants me to play here. This where I want to be.”
A no-trade clause guarantees longevity with a team only to a certain extent and Griffin knows it.
Carmelo Anthony is one of the few players with a no-trade clause and his turned into an offseason circus, as the New York Knicks endlessly searched for avenues to trade him to a team of his choice, the Houston Rockets. That turned into a last-minute Hail Mary that landed him with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Griffin might have been a part of the L.A. Clippers for a long nine seasons, but there's value in playing for a team that wants him there and wants to win with him, rather than one that is forced to have him in the roster due to financial commitments.
While getting traded is often a tough transition, one of the silver linings is that an NBA franchise looked to acquire a player, who now will get to see the plan laid forward for him. In this case, Stan Van Gundy was the mastermind under this deal, and now it will be ultimately up to him to make that plan come to fruition.
