Blake Griffin Trade With Boston Celtics Discussed By L.A. Clippers
A Blake Griffin trade between the L.A. Clippers and Boston Celtics has been discussed several times during the 2016-17 NBA season. Griffin is about to become a free agent during the NBA offseason, making it possible that the Clippers would look to deal him before the February 23 NBA trade deadline. Even though a deal is unlikely to happen, it might surprise some fans to learn that the discussions took place at different intervals, including very recently.
A report by ESPN provides some more details on the Blake Griffin trade chatter, with the Boston Celtics showing a lot of interest in acquiring the All-Star power forward midseason. Griffin could certainly give the Celtics a huge boost of momentum for the second half of the regular season and into the 2017 NBA Playoffs. Despite it boiling down to a player rental, Griffin is the type of player who might convince Celtics president Danny Ainge to start dealing from his treasure trove of future draft picks.
It’s important to point out that these Blake Griffin trade rumors don’t indicate that a deal will take place or that a deal is even close between the Boston Celtics and L.A. Clippers. In fact, ESPN even stated that it is “unlikely” that the two sides will come to terms on a trade. The Clippers likely want to keep Griffin in Los Angeles, while the Celtics want some guarantees that Griffin is willing to sign a long-term contract extension to remain in Boston. That won’t keep fans from discussing the possibilities on social media.
Griffin has played 36 games for the Clippers this season, missing quite a bit of time due to injury. During his time on the court, Griffin has averaged 21.9 points, 8.8 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 1.1 steals per game. Those are very close to his career averages of 21.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 1.0 steals per game. This is his seventh season in the NBA, but Griffin did miss his first rookie season recovering from surgery.
For the 2016-17 NBA season, Blake Griffin has a salary of about $20.1 million and then he has an early termination clause to get out of his contract. That will make Griffin an unrestricted free agent and put him on the open market for teams to court. There is expected to be a lot of interest from other franchises during the upcoming NBA offseason, but Griffin has never hinted at leaving Los Angeles. One of the reasons for all the recent Griffin trade rumors, though, is that the franchise doesn’t want to lose him and get nothing in return.
Through the first 56 games of this season, the Clippers are 35-21 and fourth place in the Western Conference. The Clippers aren’t going to move up in the divisional standings, as they still trail the Golden State Warriors by 12 games. The Pacific Division could be clinched before the games in April even get started. Still, if the Clippers can remain a top four seed in the West, they will gain home-court advantage in the first-round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs. That’s a good position to be in, even as the team continues to try to add assets for the stretch run.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, the L.A. Clippers and team president Doc Rivers are still holding out hope of acquiring Carmelo Anthony from the New York Knicks. There is a possible scenario where the team could trade for Anthony but do so without giving up Griffin, Chris Paul, or DeAndre Jordan in the process. Doing that would make it easier to table all the other Blake Griffin trade rumors, as a championship run could certainly convince the power forward to put the Clippers at the top of the list in free agency.
[Featured Image by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images]
