Panic In Detroit

  The NBA world was rocked by the Los Angeles Clippers trade of Blake Griffin and some spare parts to the Detroit Pistons for Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, and a protected #1 draft pick. Griffin was arguably the greatest Clipper ever. He was the first overall pick in the 2009 draft, the 2010 Rookie of the Year, and a five time all-star. In the offseason Griffin signed a five year $171 million dollar contract that will take up between a third and fourth of the salary cap of any team he plays for.

  The Clippers were one of the NBA’s most successful regular season franchises since the arrival of all-star point guard Chris Paul in 2011, making the playoffs six straight seasons and winning a playoff series three times. The franchise was scarred when losing to the Houston Rockets in the conference semi-finals after having a 3-1 series lead along with a 25 point lead in the second half of the fifth game. Paul forced a trade to the Rockets this season and the Clippers remade their team around Griffin and center DeAndre Jordan surrounded by the role players received in the Rockets trade and some free-agent pickups. After a 4-0 start, the team started suffering injuries and Griffin missed over a dozen games. The Clippers lost 11 out of 12 but started winning again when Griffin returned and are currently in a battle for the final playoff spots in the Western Conference. This trade signals the start of newly hired consultant and NBA legend Jerry West’s housecleaning as he attempts to rebuild the Clippers into a contender for championships instead of hoping to make the conference finals one of these years.

  Normally getting a five time all-star is considered a steal but there are serious questions about Blake Griffin. He made the all-star team his first five years in the league but was not chosen the last three years mostly due to injuries that have cost him at least 20 games a year. In a salary cap sport like the NBA teams whose top paid players can’t play tend to struggle, much like the Detroit Pistons who started the season with a 14- 6 record including wins over the Warriors and Celtics and then lost 20 of their next 28 games in no small part because point guard Reggie Jackson (the second highest paid player on the team) suffered an ankle injury.

  The Griffin deal is the either the last gasp or the crowning moment of Detroit’s Stan Van Gundy’s tenure as the Coach/GM of the Pistons. This is Van Gundy’s 4th year with the Pistons. The first three years have netted one winning season (44-38) which gave the Pistons the 8th seed and a sweep at the hands of the eventual champion Cavaliers in the opening round of the playoffs.

  Now one playoff sweep in three years may not be seen as an abject failure except that in the NBA most coaches with that sort of record don’t make a fourth year. There are four current NBA coaches that have had one playoff appearance (or less) in the past three years: Steve Clifford of the Hornets who made the playoffs twice in the past four years (losing both times in the first round) but once in the past three years; Quinn Snyder of the Jazz who made the playoffs in his third season and won a playoff series; and Brett Brown of the 76ers who was hired to oversee a team that was purposefully trying to lose as many games as possible. Van Gundy is the fourth. There was not one coach fired from an NBA team last season. This season Phoenix, Memphis, and Milwaukee made coaching changes. The shelf life of an NBA coach that doesn’t make the playoffs on a regular basis is short. Very few coaches get a fourth year with the record Van Gundy has had with the Pistons but he does have the advantage of not only being the coach but also the General Manager.

  Van Gundy's record as a General Manager has been mixed. His 2015 pickups of Tobias Harris from the Orlando Magic and Reggie Jackson from the Thunder worked out well enough. The pickup of Jackson could have been franchise-altering except that Jackson has proven to be injury-prone the past two season which leaves a $14 million player (1/7 of the cap) on the sidelines. He has not proven to be able to develop role players into above average starters and his drafts have been abysmal. His highest pick was the 8th pick in the 2015 draft Stanley Johnson. Johnson has a world of athleticism but has barely been able to crack the starting lineup after three seasons. The 18th pick in the 2016 draft was Henry Ellenson who has barely been able to stay out of the G-League. His 2017 top pick Luke Kennard (12th in the draft) has been a rotation player which may or may not be due to Jackson’s injury and the need for Coach Van Gundy to show that GM Van Gundy has hit on a draft pick.

  Van Gundy received an endorsement from the Pistons owner Tom Gores earlier this year but the team has just moved into a new arena in downtown Detroit and won’t sell tickets without the excitement a winning team will bring without even mentioning the millions in revenue the team gets for having home playoff games. Van Gundy’s 5 year $35 million dollar contract runs out next season and it would not be unreasonable to expect a consistent playoff team by the fourth season. The Pistons had lost eight straight games before the trade (they beat the Cavaliers at home the day the trade was announced). The Griffin trade is an incredibly risky move. Griffin has not proven he can stay healthy for a full season and has missed the last two playoffs with injuries as well. Committing so much of the salary cap for a player that can’t stay healthy could hamstring the franchise for the next decade but Van Gundy does not have to worry about the next decade of Pistons basketball if he cannot turn around this season and he has only 30 games left to do it.