4. Blake Griffin, Detroit Pistons
Blake Griffin is veering dangerously toward “lost cause territory” since everyone knows his extensive injury history by now. However, in his first full season with a Detroit Pistons franchise that’s fully dependent on his health, there’s a new sense of hope he can stay healthy long enough to get this team back to the playoffs — and an accompanying fear that he won’t.
Over the last four years, the Flyin’ Lion has been grounded a bit more than you’d like to see from a star of his caliber, missing 24, 21, 47 and 15 games. Remember, this is also the guy who had to miss what would’ve been his rookie season due to a broken kneecap.
Given the variety of injuries he’s sustained (and inflicted upon himself, given his hand injury from punching a member of the Clippers’ equipment staff), Griffin is just one of those players everyone assumes will miss 15-20 games every year. Entering the second year of his massive five-year, $171.2 million contract, and joining a sad Pistons team trying to bring life back to Motown basketball, he has a ton of pressure on him to shed that injury-prone label in 2018-19.