Blake Griffin Reportedly Offered to Thunder for Paul George Before Pistons Trade
Although Blake Griffin's trade from the Los Angeles Clippers to the Detroit Pistons seemed to come from out of nowhere, the Clippers had apparently shopped him around to at least one Western Conference team.
Speaking on the Hoop Collective podcast, ESPN.com's Royce Young reported the Clippers offered Griffin to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Paul George (h/t Slam magazine's Ryne Nelson). Young added he was "pretty sure" Los Angeles contacted the Minnesota Timberwolves as well.
Even though George can become a free agent after this season, there's no calculus in which it made sense for the Thunder to acquire Griffin, in large part because of his contract.
The five-time All-Star is in the first year of the five-year, $171.2 million extension he signed with the Clippers in the offseason. He has a player option worth nearly $39 million in the final year of that contract.
That would be added onto the five-year, $205 million extension the Thunder gave Russell Westbrook in the summer, which doesn't even kick in until 2018-19, when Westbrook will make $35.3 million. His salary will rise to $46.7 million before it expires after the 2022-23 season.
As good as Griffin is now, there's little way in seeing how the Thunder could've built a title contender by committing more than $70 million annually between he and Westbrook.
And that doesn't even factor in the possibility of George staying in Oklahoma City. A max extension for George makes more sense for the Thunder since he's far more versatile than Griffin and has had fewer injury issues over his career—his leg fracture aside.
In an interview with ESPN's Rachel Nichols (h/t Young), George seemingly indicated a willingness to stay with the Thunder when he praised Westbrook and said, "It's more apparent what this decision needs to be made when it comes down to it":
After a bumpy start to the regular season, the Thunder are coming together. They're only a half-game behind the Minnesota Timberwolves for the fourth seed in the West, and George and Westbrook are building a strong chemistry between one another.
The team is better off keeping this roster together for the remainder of the season and taking its chances with re-signing George in the summer.
