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

Shouldn’t a rebuilding team have a negative-value player getting minutes?

There’s an argument that Blake Griffin’s poor performance leading to losses is actually a good thing. After all, a rebuilding team is indirectly trying to lose games anyway, so why not have a player whose inability to compete at a high level on defense or contribute to winning play as many minutes as possible?

It’s a garbage argument.

Exposing Griffin to this serves no purpose. Take this quote from Marcus Smart after the Boston Celtics defeated the Pistons on Sunday afternoon.

Via Rod Beard of the Detroit News:

"“We got exactly what we wanted — we got Jayson [Tatum] going downhill against Blake. He’s not the same Blake as he used to be (with his quickness) and we just took advantage of that. We did exactly what we were supposed to do and got the shot we wanted.”"

It doesn’t serve anybody for Griffin to be the foil for opponents to attack repeatedly on the way to their inevitable wins. It’s uncompetitive, it’s shabby treatment of a respected veteran and professional, somebody who literally gave his body and years of his life for this team.

The Pistons are going to lose plenty of games on their own with this young and inexperienced roster. The notion of putting Blake Griffin on the floor to make sure they lose as many games as possible to save the youngsters from accidentally winning is scarcely worth acknowledgment other than to declare that it is indeed a bad argument.

So what are the Pistons to do? It’s a real no-win scenario for everybody involved at this point, but purposefully racking up losses with Blake Griffin to blame isn’t the answer.