Blake Griffin Trade to Pistons for Avery Bradley, More Ignites Twitter Reaction
January 30, 2018
The Los Angeles Clippers shook up the basketball world Monday when they traded star forward Blake Griffin to the Detroit Pistons less than a year after they traded Chris Paul to the Houston Rockets.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported the news and shared the details of the trade on Twitter:
Naturally, NBA Twitter was quick to react, largely with shock. Some of the surprise appeared to come from the man himself:
Royce Young of ESPN.com shared an interesting tidbit from colleague Zach Lowe detailing the Clippers' pitch to keep Griffin in Los Angeles during the offseason:
Ramona Shelburne of ESPN reacted in a similar manner:
Chris Herring of ESPN looked back at another part of Griffin's recruitment:
Griffin ultimately signed a five-year deal to stay with the Clippers only to get traded to the Pistons.
Others were focused on the Boban Marjanovic side of the deal:
Arash Markazi of ESPN underscored just how difficult it will be for the Clippers to contend in the Western Conference without Griffin moving forward:
Andrew Sharp of Sports Illustrated suggested they are taking more of a long-term approach to contention:
Here are some of the best of the rest:
While much of the focus was on the Clippers losing Griffin despite sitting just a game out of playoff position in the Western Conference, the Pistons picked up one of the better forwards in the league for their own push.
Griffin is averaging 22.6 points and 7.9 rebounds per game this season and will give Detroit another interior presence alongside Andre Drummond.
Detroit is 22-26 and in the middle of an eight-game losing streak, but it is just three games behind the Philadelphia 76ers for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. It now has an All-Star caliber player to help lead a comeback up the standings, and he figures to be particularly motivated on Feb. 9 when the Pistons host the Clippers.