RealGM

Figured a new thread would be good now that it is official



The deal is for the Vet minimum.

Blake Griffin
12/5/4 on 36/31/77 + 49TS%

2021 Highlights

Here is a video of every blake possesion vs. Boston. I think this gives some better insight then a highlight reel. if we can find more of these they i think have alot of value



From what I've seen here and a few Pistons games...

Pros:
-High IQ. right spots, right times.
-Under control. wont add to our turnover issues
-Shot isnt broken.
-Shot selection is sound. he doesnt force anything
-Big body, thought to move.
-Some post skills
-Solid passer, especially from high to low post
-Hard worker

Cons:
-Lift seems to be gone
-Has become a below the rim finisher (although at a decent rate still.)
-Jumpshot has declined drastically last 2 years. Could be a result of declining lift. when he misses, its often short
-Not a shot blocking presence
-Rebounding has tailed off.
-Struggles to get up and down the court either due to injury/age or effort/stamina. often trails on both ends


My guess is he is a less productive, less viable version of Green, who at this point is the better shooter and athlete. Blake physically bigger frame may help on the defensive glass, but as we diagnosed in some of the game threads, our rebounding issues going small are typically because our 5 has to help and doesnt alter the shot which leaves our 4 smalls to battle their 5 for a rebound.

Hopefully im wrong like i was on claxton. he is certainly worth the signing, even if just for his vet presence and to trigger the haters

#2 Blake

Paradise wrote:#2 Blake

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Fun prop bet:

More dunks from now til the end of the year: Kyrie or Blake?

I think this is a bigger signing despite the physical signs he showed the last 1.5 years. What it comes down to is his BBIQ, desire to win a championship (which is evident in the 13 million he gave up), and his chemistry as a teammate. The talent surrounding him is going to make a huge difference, who is ever going to double him? He has excellent vision and is an elite passer that can still finish a roll at a high level. That is something defenses still had to focus on. I think he was a great pick up that will actually move the needle some.

HardenGoat wrote:I think this is a bigger signing despite the physical signs he showed the last 1.5 years. What it comes down to is his BBIQ, desire to win a championship (which is evident in the 13 million he gave up), and his chemistry as a teammate. The talent surrounding him is going to make a huge difference, who is ever going to double him? He has excellent vision and is an elite passer that can still finish a roll at a high level. That is something defenses still had to focus on. I think he was a great pick up that will actually move the needle some.

He doesnt really get double much when you look into it, watch the tape, and consider the circumstances.

Half of his attempts are threes. he is shooting them at 31% (24% last year). Most of those threes, especially if you focus on the misses are either not contested, or he pump fakes the contest into a wide open look.

Look i havent watched every piston game. but im going through the condensces ones on league pass on the nba.com site. and its a similar trend. alot of threes missed short. i speculate thats him losing lift, but i dont know that difinitively.

But his 36/31/71 on 49 TS% certainly isnt due to some huge volume of double teams. for one he does a good job passing out of the few post up doubles he sees. He plays next to jeremy grant, who has become a legit all-star scorer. teams focus on him, not blake.

and i mean, no one is double teaming blake at the 3 point line.

He is shooting 43% on wide open threes (2 attempts per game)
He is shooting 27% on open threes (3 attempts per game)

The good news is he will get a ton of wide open looks. Green does and he would be in similar situations. if that volume increases does that stay the same or go down? thats really the big question.

Invictus88 from the pistons board wrote this in the GB blake thread

So you clearly haven't watched Blake play in the last 1.5 seasons. His struggles weren't due to lack of effort. He wasn't sulking or sandbagging. What you saw was 18 months of a man attempting to continue doing what his body let him do easily before his legs completely let him down.

I'm not talking about high flyng dunks here. I'm talking about having any effectiveness at all backing down opponents of equal height and being able to finish with a basket. I'm talking about having minimal leg lift to avoid the endless litany of jump shots hitting the front of the rim. I'm talking about it reaching the point of opponents early in the shot clock abandoning him behind the arc. With 7 seconds left he'd either pass the ball out to a covered teammate or turn the ball over. He literally could not create his own shot and couldn't make what he was given. And let's not even go into defense.

Do me a favor and go to the Pistons board and search the threads or game logs for any sign that effort was ever a concern with Blake Griffin. There's zilch. We loved him because he gave everything he had. But it was clear at the end that we were a better team when he wasn't on the floor. And we're 10-26.

Kind of speaks to alot of my assumptions and suspicions
viewtopic.php?f=6&p=89396406#p89396406

From the Pistons board:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2060484

flow wrote:Not much left in the tank. Shell of himself is accurate. But he's still a basketball talent. The Nets should design sets to facilitate offense through him in the post. I don't know if Nash/D'Antoni have that in them, though. Otherwise, he'll just be standing around waiting to jack up a shot.

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JustinSane wrote:Blake was nothing but a class act in his time in Detroit, and I'm rooting for him. However, this season he honestly has looked like he's wholly spent. No lift, no mobility. He can still pass, and he's a reasonable spot up shooter, but that is everything he has left.

ducler wrote:Hard to tell... I really hope for all of us that he has something left to give you.

I saw desperation in his eyes/body language a couple of times this season. His head wanted to be impactful, but his body didn't follow. So he tried to adapt his game (again) as he realized he wasn't able to do the things he did 2 years ago. That was painful to watch honestly.

But the Nets' situation with less pressure on his shoulders, less playing time, good teammates and coaching staff, could be nice for him.

What you can expect offensively: nice BBIQ, assists, some postmoves, more of pick&pop than pick&roll anymore, and I'm sure he can improve his pourcentage from 3. Better to play him on a slow pace O.
Defensively, he will drop some charges, can matchup well against big bodies, but is too slow to guard the quickest guys anymore.

vege wrote:The games he was effective this season, were the games where he played inside on offense. He can still play bully ball, and that's what he could bring to Brooklyn. He's strong, has a high bbiq, and he is a very craft/excellent finisher. His shot has been bad, but where he was really hurting Detroit was on defense.

He can't defend anyone at all. He was playing almost like a goalkeeper around the basket, his mobility is really bad. We were playing 4 on 5 on defense, with him on the court.

The one good thing he brings on defense is, he is very good at take charges. Probably the best in the league (again, very high bbiq player)

The thing he brings and Brooklyn doesn't need is, his ballhandling/playmaking. Brooklyn should have the ball on Harden or Kyrie hands all the time, not Blake. He is a good passer.

He should be very motivated, so maybe he'll put some effort on defense, and he'll probably play a lot more bully ball than he played for us.

Drwho17 wrote:I think he's pretty much done, you can see him dragging a leg running up/down the court. He's probably league average at the 3 point shot, which he was taking a lot of. I don't think he was saving himself or anything this season, he's always been the kind of player to give it all, taking charges, going after loose balls etc., he just doesn't have the base athleticism to be a good NBA player anymore.

Impression i got was:
-He wasnt dogging it, and was a class act there
-He has lost lift/a step or more
-He still has skill and high IQ, and that makes him playable to an asset at times on offense
-takes alot of charges but overall is a liability who cant defend anything on the perimeter

To me, jeff green insruance/alternative

There is no question he has physically declined, but the much better question is can he be a plus on the floor and what can he offer to the team to reach the goal. I have watched him play and yes he lacks lift, not like what I see in someone like Boogie Cousins but yes he has lost his explosion and he probably requires more recovery. Blake is still a skilled player though and effective passer, we are not talking about someone shouldering 30+min anymore, maybe 12-15 a game giving a spark at times. I can certainly see him as a leader, setting picks up top and kicking out passes, similar to a small ball version of Gasol, but we have Harris, Durant, Kyrie, Harden, Brown, Meth, Shamet rotating and cutting. I think he's a plus at least in limited minutes. Exciting times!

HardenGoat wrote:There is no question he has physically declined, but the much better question is can he be a plus on the floor and what can he offer to the team to reach the goal. I have watched him play and yes he lacks lift, not like what I see in someone like Boogie Cousins but yes he has lost his explosion and he probably requires more recovery. Blake is still a skilled player though and effective passer, we are not talking about someone shouldering 30+min anymore, maybe 12-15 a game giving a spark at times. I can certainly see him as a leader, setting picks up top and kicking out passes, similar to a small ball version of Gasol, but we have Harris, Durant, Kyrie, Harden, Brown, Meth, Shamet rotating and cutting. I think he's a plus at least in limited minutes. Exciting times!

Gasol was a plus, or even very good defender even the past few years. his play in the ECF in finals and torontos playoff run we saw great D with flashes of elite level D switched on curry and trapping all over.

Blake doesnt seem to be that guy. Piston fans vary a bit but all agree, he is bad and a liability on D.

Being a good passer is nice. but you'd be taking the ball out of Harden or Kyries hands. There is no way thats better offense. Based on all we know and pistons fans opinions, i dont see how he is a better option then green, who as actually proven to do all the things we hope blake can

I agree with Green, he has been fabulous, he played for part of a game after the hurt shoulder but has been out since, hope it is nothing serious. Blake at least adds depth to that position because that is where I see him fit.

Happy with the signing, and I hope Blake pleasantly surprises us with his play. Risk is minimal and he is a high IQ vet at the very least.

Not expecting prime blake for a vet min.

Marks is just trying to different guys until one sticks.(Pelle, Vonleh, Shump, Roberson, etc)

There's no downside to boosting our depth heading into the playoffs during a championship run.

Blake is not what he used to be but he can give us some depth at the 4/5 which is always important since you never know what can happen with injuries + time lost due to COVID tracing among other variables.

Let's see what he has left, if nothing then no harm done since we don't NEED him to win a chip.

Not expecting anything but someone who will help our depth. From what the Pistons fans say about him, he is an utter professional and they have love for him. That's all I need to hear. At 1.2 mil, if he can just give us some good bench minutes I will be happy.

The physical decline is real and while I wasn't a fan of picking up Blake you'd have to be mad to turn it down for a vet min.

Put 3 or 4 elite shooters around Blake like the Nets can and he can be pretty dangerous still in small doses. Big enough to attack switches, while also a good enough ball handler to run some pick and rolls with the shooters.

Don't think he does anything to address energy and defensive issues but at the very least he's a strong dude that won't get bodied in the post.

Blake or TLC is a no brainer for me.

Honestly have to wonder what happens with Love next. I think Love can still be a really solid contributor off the bench, maybe put up 11/6 in like low 20's mpg.

Before we definitively conclude that Green is better than Blake, keep in mind that Green so far is having a real outlier season shooting the ball. He's never shot close to this well before. He very well may regress to the mean, and Griffin may show an improvement, since he's historically been a better 3pt shooter than this when he did decide to become a volume 3pt shooter.

I see Griffin potentially as a hybrid between Green and Brown. Giving us some outside shooting with size like Green, and having a knack for being in the right place at the right time offensively like Brown.

If Blake can spell n fill in for Green that's a big win...

Won't be good for us to keep playing Uncle Jeff at a high usage before playoffs...

We gonna ball!

vincecarter4pres wrote:Honestly have to wonder what happens with Love next. I think Love can still be a really solid contributor off the bench, maybe put up 11/6 in like low 20's mpg.

I'm super bullish on love. unlike blake he doesnt rely on athleticism and is an elite shooter. better rebounder and as a stretch 5 doesnt just keep you honest but will gut you if left open.

id be pumped if we found a way to add him

therealbig3 wrote:Before we definitively conclude that Green is better than Blake, keep in mind that Green so far is having a real outlier season shooting the ball. He's never shot close to this well before. He very well may regress to the mean, and Griffin may show an improvement, since he's historically been a better 3pt shooter than this when he did decide to become a volume 3pt shooter.

I see Griffin potentially as a hybrid between Green and Brown. Giving us some outside shooting with size like Green, and having a knack for being in the right place at the right time offensively like Brown.

Issue is green and brown can both move their feet and defend. Blakes biggest weakness is defense