Brooklyn Nets made headlines on Sunday by hiring veteran striker Blake Griffin for the remainder of the current campaign. In Griffin, the Nets have a player with a well-known name and a cache of achievements, including six appearances on the All-Star, five selections on the All-NBA, a Rookie of the Year award and a title on the Slam Dunk Contest. But while Griffin is one of the most decorated players of the past decade, his addition does not change the scenario much for a Nets team with legitimate aspirations to the championship this season.
At this point in his career, Griffin is clearly not the player he was when he was a perennial All-Star team – a flyer known for sinking posters over the edge and standing at the end of a wide alley -oops. Injury problems have affected Griffin, who has appeared in just 38 games in the past two seasons and has not sunk in any game since 2019 (yes, really). In turn, he has been largely relegated to the role of spacer in recent seasons.
More than half of Griffin’s goal attempts per game this season came from outside the arc. He averages 12.3 points per game, the lowest level of his career, while shooting just 36 percent off the ground in the season, and he also gets just 5.2 rebounds per performance. He is no longer particularly effective on the defensive side, as he never had the sheer size to be a force against the best centers in the league, and his undermined athletics made it difficult for him to keep pace with the perimeter-oriented strikers. prevalent in the league today. In other words, he is not big defensively in painting or perimeter at this point. The Nets have needed additional paint protection since the loss of Jarrett Allen in the switch that took James Harden to Brooklyn earlier this season. Griffin does not provide this.
So, what exactly will Griffin bring to Brooklyn? This is yet to be seen. At the very least, he could serve as a great servant outside the bank who could eat a few minutes and not be a net negative. He has a high IQ in basketball and can still be productive in stretching. In addition, he developed a floor spacer arranged throughout his career, and virtually all teams, including the Nets, could use additional floor spacing. The more space that can be generated for Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the better.
During his first three seasons, Griffin tried 68 trios in total. In the 20 games he played for the Pistons this season, he made 124 trios. He has a 33 percent long-distance career conversion rate, which is good enough to make a defender think twice before leaving him open to help elsewhere. Ultimately, this ability to generate space may be the biggest asset Griffin brings to the Nets, who are second in the East, behind the Philadelphia 76ers, with a 24-13 record in the All-Star range.
Brooklyn plans to use Griffin as a small ball center off the bench, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, which makes sense, since Brooklyn’s ability to play small is an advantage against many teams. Both Durant and Jeff Green spent some time at the center of the Nets this season, as going small this way allows them to have more kicks and handling the ball on the floor. However, against teams with formidable attack fields – such as the 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks or Miami Heat in the East, or the Los Angeles Lakers in the West – this strategy will be more difficult to employ. Given that the Nets will likely have to go up against some of those teams during the postseason game, it is fair to imagine how useful Griffin will be – and how much he will play – in the playoffs.
Before worrying about the playoffs, the Nets need to get there first and, once they get there, they will want to be as healthy as possible. If the addition of Griffin helps them achieve that, absorbing some of the regular season wear from the rest of the rotation, it will be worth it – especially since they hired him for a veteran minimum contract that expires after the season. Perhaps playing with a plethora of other stars like Durant, Harden and Irving, and his former Lob City teammate, DeAndre Jordan, rejuvenates Griffin a little and propels him to do some backward performances. After all, he is only two years away from an All-Star appearance.
Overall, signing Griffin is a low-risk move with potential for Brooklyn and gives Griffin the opportunity to pursue a championship at this stage in his career – something that was obviously important to him, although his addition won t make the same noise that you would have made a few years ago. The Nets were a genuine contender before adding Griffin, and certainly still are afterwards. However, they don’t necessarily feel closer to a title than they did before they signed it. Maybe Griffin will change that with a strong game in his new city.