Detroit Pistons: It’s time to ask some tough questions about Blake Griffin

The Detroit Pistons are stuck between a rock and a hard place with Blake Griffin. With signs of his decline growing more clear, what are they to do?

After almost a year between NBA games, Blake Griffin‘s return to the Detroit Pistons brought equal parts excitement and apprehension. He was shut down just after Christmas last season with a left knee injury related to the one that hampered him and kept him out of two playoff games in 2018-19, and there was hope that the Blake of old would be the one that took the floor to start this season.

So far through six games, that has not been the case.

Griffin made his mark in 2018-19 with prolific 3-point shooting, coming one made 3 away from tying Allan Houston‘s team record of 190. It’s clear that he’s using that same approach this season, but doing so to an extreme level.

That season he took 38.9 percent of his field goal attempts from behind the arc, making 36.2 percent of them. Last season, in his abbreviated action, that knee injury crippled his athleticism and ability to go through or around defenders. As a result, he relied even more on that 3-point shooting, taking 44.4 percent of his field goal attempts from long distance. He wasn’t even able to get enough lift to shoot effectively and his percentage dipped precipitously to 24.3 percent.

This season he’s treating the 3-pointer as a crutch. 64.8 percent of his field goal attempts have come from behind the 3-point line.

Thanks to a blistering stretch against the Cleveland Cavaliers he’s shooting 41.2 percent from 3, but that doesn’t change the fact that he can’t do anything else on offense at this point, and he’s a non-entity on defense. In fact, he’s largely playing 3-point line to 3-point line as games go on.

Examining Blake Griffin’s on/off impact for the Detroit Pistons

The Pistons are significantly worse when he plays than when he sits. When Griffin is on the floor, they have a net rating of -13.7, while when he is off they’re positive with a +1.2 net rating. Their defensive rating is 13.9 points better when he’s off (119.2 versus 105.3) than on, and the dip in their offensive rating is imperceptible.

This young team plays much better with pace, but when Griffin is on the floor they play 5.8 possessions per 48 minutes slower than when he’s off. With Blake Griffin off the floor, the Detroit Pistons play at a top-10 pace at 103.35 possessions, and when he’s on they’re the slowest paced team in the NBA at 97.57 possessions per game, just a touch slower than the last-place LA Clippers’ pace of 97.92.

So, the Detroit Pistons are considerably worse with Blake Griffin than without him, and at this point, there’s no getting around it.

With this being the case, what are they to do about it? Let’s ask these tough questions facing the Pistons.