Portland Trail Blazers: 3 options to add a third star next to Dame, CJ

2. Blake Griffin

What it could look like:

It’s time to rebuild in Detroit. The Pistons are a mediocre team that is destined to be battling for the 8th seed for years to come if they don’t break up their core. It took an All-NBA season from Blake Griffin for them to even get there this year.

It’s starting to sound like the Pistons might be open to parting with Griffin as rumors have started to circulate that they are shopping him. It was a little confounding why Detroit traded for him in the first place because of how little he moved the needle there given the surrounding talent. Because of that it presented a huge risk for little payoff given his contract and injury history.

This remains the biggest risk for any team interested in trading for him. Griffin has 3 years and $110 million left on his contract and has an extensive injury history including missing games this year in the Pistons lone playoff series because of another knee injury that required surgery.

In trading for him you have to brace for the possibility that you could end up having one of the league’s worst contracts on your books if things go wrong. There are few things more crippling for a team than having an oft-injured player taking up over a quarter of your cap, just ask the Wizards.

All that being said, Griffin is still a supremely talented player who possesses superior playmaking ability at the 4 and is coming off a career best 36 percent shooting from deep. He would be a great fit next to Dame and CJ and could add a whole new element to the offense with Griffin being used as the playmaker with Dame and CJ cutting off ball similar to how the Warriors use Draymond Green.

While Griffin is not known as being a defensive stopper, he would at least give the Blazers a forward sized body to throw out there – one that you would actually want playing starter minutes. The Portland Trail Blazers’ other options in that regard are no great shakes.

Griffin’s injury history is another reason the Blazers could be a good fit for him. Portland’s core is a proven playoff team, this takes the pressure off Griffin to play 70+ games as he did for Detroit last year. With Griffin on the Blazers you could see them implement a load management plan similar to what the Raptors did with Kawhi last year.

Trading for Griffin is a risk, but one that would make the Blazers better if he can stay on the court. It would be critical to add protections on picks in a trade for him, but as long as those are in place it would be a gamble worth taking.