Detroit Pistons: Should they trade away Blake Griffin?

Blake Griffin is playing arguably the best basketball of his career. With the Detroit Pistons looking far away from competing, should they sell high on him?

Over the weekend, some rumors had circulated that Detroit Pistons power forward Blake Griffin could possibly be interested in being traded. While it was determined that he is willing to be patient during this rebuild, the Pistons would be wise to consider trading their star forward. Griffin is on an extremely expensive contract, and by the time they will be able to compete at a high level, he’ll be past his prime and on the downslope of his career.

Griffin has been the only Piston playing above-average basketball this season. He’s the team’s workhorse with a 29.6 percent usage rate, and he’s remained extremely efficient despite that high usage. He’s scoring 26.3 points per game to go along with 8.1 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game. Those aforementioned efficiency marks see Griffin shooting 48 percent from the field alongside 36.4 percent mark from 3-point range.

This team will go only as far as Griffin will drag them. His trade value will never be higher, so the Pistons have to be prudent in pursuing all avenues. When they acquired him last season, they had to sacrifice multiple building pieces, such as Tobias Harris and a first round draft pick. If they were to trade Griffin now, they would regress in the short-term, but they would set themselves up better in the future.

The Pistons had Stan Van Gundy in charge for a number of years as the head coach and president of basketball operations. Coaches that are on the hot seat are often reluctant to undergo a rebuild, as it likely would put them out of a job. Head coach Dwane Casey is locked in for the next few seasons, and he could easily get on board with a rebuilding project. This would allow the team to better outfit the roster to suit his system.

One major issue for the Pistons when considering going for the tank is they aren’t the biggest market, and they already struggle to fill the arena. Trading away their best player wouldn’t help that cause at all. The Pistons have refused to tank for the last decade, even though it likely could have helped them. If they make the decision to move Griffin, the fans will likely voice their displeasure with declining ticket sales.

Between the trade deadline and this offseason, the Pistons need to find ways to get out of the bad contracts they have stacked up over the past couple of seasons, such as Reggie Jackson, Jon Leuer and Langston Galloway. Galloway is somewhat movable, but the other two will require the team getting creative to move them. The teardown has to start somewhere, and Griffin should be the first domino that falls.

At the 2019 NBA Trade Deadline, the team has to consider the decisions of getting aggressive by making a trade to help them win, standing pat or embracing the tank. In order to get out of NBA purgatory, they may have to get worse before they get better. Griffin has had a terrific tenure over the past year with the Pistons, and he could be great for a longer amount of time. However, while a .500 record would look better for sales, it isn’t going to help them in the long run as much as trading Griffin will.