Pistons: Analyzing a Blake Griffin trade with the Miami Heat

It’s only a matter of time until Blake Griffin departs the Detroit Pistons. The only questions to ask are by what mechanism, and what his destination will be.

On February 15th, it was reported that Griffin and the Pistons organization had come to an agreement that he would be held out of the lineup while the team searches for a deal to move him elsewhere. Thanks to Griffin’s large contract, it won’t be easy to find a trade partner, which means a potential buyout becomes that much more likely.

Analyzing a Blake Griffin fake trade between the Detroit Pistons and the Miami Heat

A buyout is the heavy favorite to be Griffin’s ultimate result, but if the Pistons are going to exhaust all trade avenues before pulling that trigger (and they are, we’re talking about Troy Weaver here), we should at follow suit.

Our friends at Bleacher Report came up with a hypothetical trade that sends Griffin to the Miami Heat, and we’ll take a look at this deal and analyze it from the perspective of both teams. The trade looks like this:

The Pistons receive: Andre Iguodala, Kelly Olynyk, Meyers Leonard and a 2022 second-round pick.

The Heat receive: Blake Griffin and Wayne Ellington.

You can check the financials and particulars of this deal here, via TradeNBA.

It’s a deal that doesn’t cost the Pistons future assets, which should be a no-go for any trade involving Blake Griffin, and if the Heat believe Griffin has something left in the tank for a run through the playoffs, they might feel like they’re the winner in this transaction.

We’ll analyze this hypothetical trade from the perspective of both teams, starting with the Pistons.