TRADE ALERT! Blake Griffin Traded to the Detroit Pistons!

In a move that nobody saw coming, five-time all-star and 2011's Rookie of the Year Blake Griffin has been traded by the Los Angeles Clippers. In a move involving five other players and two draft picks, the Clippers have traded Griffin, along with Willie Reed and Brice Johnson, to the Detroit Pistons for Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, Boban Marjanovic, a protected 2018 first round pick, and a second-round draft pick. Both teams find themselves just barely out of playoff contention, each sitting in the 9th seed of their conferences, so it looks like both teams are shaking things up to see if they can make a run at the playoffs.

The centerpiece of this trade was obviously Blake Griffin. Despite dealing with injuries throughout the season. Griffin has been putting up some great numbers, with some (including me) considering him an all-star snub. For the season so far, Griffin is averaging 22.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game while shooting  44% from the field and 34% from three-point range. Griffin has, however, dealt with injuries a lot this season, missing 16 games so far this season, with 14 of those as a result of an MCL sprain. Despite the injury risk, Griffin is a fantastic player who, paired with fellow all-star snub Andre Drummond, could be a dominant frontcourt and might just propel the Pistons into the playoffs. And with Griffin being under contract until 2021, he looks to be a part of the Pistons for years to come.

Along with Griffin, the Pistons also added two young big men in Willie Reed and Brice Johnson. Reed is a third-year player who went undrafted and will be playing for his fourth team in his career following this trade. Reed has played limited minutes for his entire career, averaging 12.6 minutes per game for his career. This season, Reed is averaging 4.9 points and 3.1 rebounds per game on only 10.7 minutes per game, while also shooting 67% from the field. He'll possibly see a slightly larger role following as the backup center for the Pistons. As for Brice Johnson, no one really knows what he's capable of, as he's only played in 12 games so far in his two-year career. He might see a larger role as a backup power forward (especially with Jon Leuer going down with a season-ending injury.) As for what he does with it, we have yet to see.

While the Pistons did manage to grab an all-star potential player, a semi-valuable role player, and a young prospect, a big fear I've seen is that the Pistons gave up a lot. That's a fair point, as they gave up their two top scorers in Harris & Bradley and a solid defender in Marjanovic. Griffin obviously will fill in for Harris at power forward and Willie Reed will take over the backup center left open by Marjanovic. As for the starting shooting guard, I could see Luke Kennard sliding in and getting his first real taste of a starting spot in the NBA.

As for the Clippers, while they did lose arguably their best player, they've managed to add several solid pieces to their lineup. The first of which is Tobias Harris, who has been having one of the best seasons of his career so far. For the season, Harris is averaging a career-high 18.1 points and 5.1 rebounds on while shooting 45% from the field, a career-best 41% from three-point range, and a career-best 85% from the free throw line. He might not be able to score or rebound the same way Blake Griffin could, but Harris is still a good addition to the team that they'll have until at least 2019.

Moving on, we have Avery Bradley, who has followed up the best season of his career with another solid season for himself. For the season, Bradley is averaging 15 points and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 41% from the field and 38% from three-point range. Bradley is an interesting addition, as he could either play shooting guard and either start over or play behind Lou Williams, who has been red-hot over the last two months, or he could move back to playing point guard and start over Milos Teodosic. Whatever he does, Bradley's good scoring ability and his strong defensive play should be a great addition to the Clippers roster.

Then we have the 7'3 Boban Marjanovic, a player who, like Willie Reed, has played a limited role throughout his three-year career so far. This season, Marjanovic has only played in 19 games while averaging 9 minutes per game but is averaging 6.2 points and 3 rebounds per game. He might see more playing time as the backup for DeAndre Jordan, but with the trade rumors surrounding Jordan, he could potentially find himself in the starting center spot.

As for that first round pick, unless it falls to the top four (the Pistons have it protected), the Clippers are looking at around the 13th pick in the draft. While that puts them way out of the running for guys like Trae Young and Marvin Bagley III, they could still land a solid player. Players they could possibly take include Robert Williams of Texas A&M (10.4 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 2.4 BPG, 60% FG) and Miles Bridges of Michigan State (17.6 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 1.1 BPG.). The second round pick likely won't get them anything important (I write that, knowing that I'll be eating my words in 2025 when Arnoldas Kulboka lead the Clippers to five NBA Championships because I'm terrible at predicting this stuff.)

Thanks for reading!