2017 NBA free agency grades: Blake Griffin agrees to re-sign with Clippers

The Los Angeles Clippers may have lost one franchise player, but they will keep their other star by re-signing Blake Griffin to a max contract.

More than two hours before the 12:01 a.m. ET starting line, word broke that the Los Angeles Clippers would be kicking 2017 NBA Free agency off with a mega deal.

As first reported by The Vertical‘s Shams Charania, Blake Griffin has agreed to sign a five-year max contract worth $173 million, keeping the face of the franchise in Lob City through his prime.

This comes a day after the Clippers traded their star point guard Chris Paul to the Houston Rockets, bringing back Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams, Sam Dekker, Montrezl Harrell, a 2018 first round pick and other cap filler in the process.

The deal was made when Paul told the Clippers he would leave in free agency to join James Harden if the team did not trade him, giving the franchise a chance to be reimbursed for their floor general rather than lose him for nothing.

While CP3 is gone, and unrestricted free agent J.J. Redick is sure to follow, the Clippers will retain one of their top three free agents, keeping their frontcourt of the Flyin’ Lion and DeAndre Jordan intact. That’s good news for a franchise that had a win percentage of .367 over 41 years before Paul arrived in Los Angeles.

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In those 41 years, the Clippers made the playoffs just seven times and didn’t reach 50 wins once. In the last five seasons with Paul and Griffin, they made the playoffs all five times, recorded at least 50 wins all five times, and won two-thirds of their games in the process.

So yeah, it’s safe to say losing Griffin, Paul and Redick in the same summer would’ve been a brutal gutpunch for a franchise that was the laughingstock of the league until the last half-decade.

With Griffin only being 28, he’s still in his prime. Even if his high-flying athleticism isn’t what it once was, he just averaged 21.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game last season. He’s one of the NBA’s best passing bigs and with CP3 gone, we could very well get an extended look at point forward Blake Griffin.

Remember, the last time Griffin played largely without Paul was in the 2015 NBA Playoffs, when he averaged morphed into a terrifying LeBron James–Magic Johnson–Kevin Garnett hybrid, averaging 25.5 points, 12.7 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 1.0 blocks and 1.0 steals per game in 14 appearances.

However, there are some definite downsides to this deal, aside from the obvious fact that a five-year max without Chris Paul means this team could struggle to make the playoffs at all.

For one, there’s Griffin’s injury-proneness to worry about. This past season, he missed 21 games and could only suit up for three playoff games. The season before, he missed 47 games and another season-ending injury in the playoffs took him out of commission. The season before that, he missed 15 games as well.

Over the last three seasons, Griffin has missed a combined 83 games and has suffered season-ending injuries in two of his three postseasons. Paying a 28-year-old a max deal through his age-33 season is not exactly a safe bet, especially given his injury history.

There’s also the amount of money to consider. That full max is a hefty price to pay for an injury-prone 28-year-old, especially with the Clippers being closer to blowing it up than retooling for a championship run.

To be perfectly honest, Griffin’s flirtations with the Phoenix Suns or another suitor like the Boston Celtics or Denver Nuggets may have been the final diamond nail in the gold-encrusted coffin.

Griffin at point forward should be a lot of fun, and this contract will ensure he goes down as the greatest Clipper in franchise history, but it certainly comes with risk.

Next: 2017 NBA free agency tracker - Grades for every deal so far

Re-signing a marketable player in a city like Los Angeles is far better than losing him for nothing, but it’s hard to tell how the Clippers will go about their rebuild with few assets to speak of and a roster that’s not good enough to contend, but still too good to tank. If Griffin can’t stay healthy, this contract will become an albatross in a hurry and could serve as a major roadblock to rebuilding down the road.

Grade: B-