Detroit Pistons go bold with blockbuster trade for Blake Griffin

Currently sitting on the outside of playoff position in the Eastern Conference, the Detroit Pistons swung a huge trade to land Blake Griffin.

Well that didn’t take long. Hours after reports the Detroit Pistons were willing to deal Avery Bradley, the team included him in a trade. While the earlier report made that part less of a shock, it’s the rest of the deal that comes as a big surprise.

The Pistons have acquired forward Blake Griffin from the Los Angeles Clippers.

Joining Griffin in coming to Detroit are Brice Johnson and Willie Reed. Joining Bradley as ex-Pistons are Tobias Harris and Boban Marjanovic. The Pistons will also part with a first and second round pick.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski the first round pick will be top-four protected for the next three years before it will become unprotected. The second round pick heading to the Clippers will be in 2019.

The trade is a near-instant remake of the Pistons midway through the season. Dealing two starters and a reserve creates a lot of shuffling but it was clear the Pistons were a team in need of a reshuffling as they’ve lost eight in a row and fallen three games back of the Philadelphia 76ers for the eighth seed in the East.

Bradley was acquired in the offseason as a replacement (and upgrade) for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope but is in the final year of his contract. Tobias Harris, who was the team’s leading scorer, is under contract for one more year at $14.8 million. Marjanovic is also signed for one more year and is slated to make $7 million.

That’s a lot of money coming off the books but there is a lot coming on in the form of Griffin, who just signed a five year max contract last July. Griffin has salaries of $31,873,932, $34,234,964, $36,595,996 and $38,957,028 beyond this season.

Griffin in the fold gives the Pistons a player with true superstar ability – an important roster piece for a team in today’s NBA. But the Pistons also may still have the problem of limited flexibility to build a championship team around a new core of Griffin, Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson. If at least one of Stanley Johnson or Luke Kennard doesn’t develop into a solid starter, the Pistons might not have accomplished much more than rearranging the furniture with this trade.

Next: 2018 QB prospect compared to Matthew Stafford

The Pistons look a lot different this evening than they did this morning and they may not be done yet. The NBA trade deadline is February 8.