A review of Blake Griffin's time with the Pistons this season.

Follow along with all the stats on Basketball-Reference. Any stats not pulled from there will be otherwise noted. Also, all numbers should be assumed to be simply his time with the Pistons, if referencing the full season (so adding in his time with the Clippers) it will be noted.

Season stats: 19.8 points, 6.6 assists, 5.6 rebounds, 2.6 turnovers. 43.3% from the field, 34.8% from deep, true shooting percentage of 53.1% in 33.2 minutes per game.

Shot Chart

The Good

It can be argued that he is paid too much, that he is too old, that he doesn't fit today's NBA and a million other things. But the best news is that the Pistons finally have an offensive star who can have an entire offense run through him effectively. Despite really struggling to adjust in his first 13 games with the Pistons where he and the entire offense was pretty out of whack (and his poor numbers reflect that, but more on that in a moment) in his time with the Pistons Griffin ranked in the 67th percentile on post-ups, 63rd percentile on isolations, 90th percentile on spot-ups, and 75th percentile coming off of a screen. When you add in his passes his isolations and post-ups get even better, including being in the 83rd percentile for isolations when including his passes. Griffin did a lot of work on his own, and he got good results despite generally playing in an offensive environment that was practically designed to make life hard for him by having exactly one shooter on the floor for large stretches.

Even looking at the larger numbers, which are not all that eye-popping as a Piston, the thing to know is that he really struggled to adjust early on with the Pistons. Which is understandable, Griffin had spent his entire career with the Clippers, was just as blindsided about the trade as everyone else, playing with all new teammates and a new coach. In his first 13 games with the Pistons, Griffin scored 17.8 points and dished 5.8 assists per game while shooting just 39.3% from the field and 25.4% from deep. After that, he hit his stride in the last 12 games of his season. Over that stretch, Griffin scored 22 points, dished 6.7 assists (against just 2.2 turnovers) and grabbed 6.2 rebounds while shooting 47.3% from the field and 44.1% from deep. Those are numbers fully reflecting a superstar player, while the shooting is something to be skeptical about, anyone who watched can attest to how much better he looked. He got comfortable, the Pistons found better ways to use him, and everything clicked better for him.

Even including those first 13 games, with Griffin on the floor, the Pistons scored 106.2 and allowed 102.8 points per 100 possessions for a net rating of +3.4. A mark that would fall at 7th between the Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs over the course of the entire season. Simply put, despite what anyone says, the Pistons were a much better team with Blake Griffin than they were without him.

The Bad

The big obvious one is that he is paid a ton of money and already missed eight games at the end of this season with an injury which is the thing you have to be most worried about with Griffin. It is worth mentioning that it sounded as if the Pistons were in any position to make the playoffs still then Griffin would've very likely returned, but its still worrying.

As far as his actual on-court play, the biggest worry remains his defense. He is not always bad and looked much better once the Pistons stopped having him try to trap ball-handlers far away from the hoop and play more conservatively. But opposing stretch fours killed the Pistons with regularity because of Griffin's struggles to close out on them. As his comfort level rises (regardless of who is coaching next year) he will get better, but the Pistons are likely going to have a difficult time constructing a reliable defense with Griffin unless he really commits himself on that end.

The other worry is how much we can trust his outside shooting and it is really just something to wait and see. The 34.8% over his entire time with the Pistons and 34.5% on the entire season is something the Pistons could live with, but it is also the first year where he really shot them and he is pretty well known as a tireless worker on his game. It is somewhat of an unknown and where it ends up is going to have a real say as to how good the Pistons can be going forward.

The other bad thing is something that we knew was coming but will still need to be addressed this offseason regardless of who is coaching. Griffin's arrival stunted Andre Drummond's offensive game in a big way. That is understandable, the dribble hand-offs and motion offense the Pistons had run through Drummond are better with Griffin and they didn't really have time to get the sort of chemistry to do fun stuff. But this season the end result was too many possessions where Drummond was relegated to standing and watching Griffin go isolation or play a two-man game with Reggie Bullock. As a result, Drummond's touches in the post went up a bunch, while Drummond did better out of the post this season that is still not ideal.

Part of that problem is just a reality of adding a new player in the middle of the season. But part of the problem was that Griffin was often not very active without the ball in his hands, often loitering around the perimeter waiting for a pass to come back to him so he could do something. To get Drummond out of the post and back into a more productive place in the offense Griffin has to be willing to do some more grunt-work off the ball by setting screens, cutting, and popping for jumpers. It is not something a lot of teams ask of a superstar, but if Andre Drummond can set aside his pride and do it then so can Blake Griffin.

Biggest Question?

What sort of a shooter will he be long-term? Will he hover around 34% like he did this season and be a guy who can shoot a little but isn't scaring anyone? Or can he apply the work ethic that took him from a ~60% free-throw shooter early in his career to nearly 80% the last two years and becomes a real threat from deep? It is also possible that he is a worse shooter than he was this season which would be a problem. Him becoming a real threat would be huge for the Pistons going forward, but he cannot be much worse than he was this season.

Biggest Answer

Griffin and Drummond can play together. A lot of fanfare was made about the ill-fit of these two, which never really made sense, to begin with given that Griffin has played nearly his entire career with DeAndre Jordan, but regardless those questions should be put to bed. With Griffin and Drummond on the floor the Pistons were +3.0 per 100 possessions and rebounded like crazy so they would outperform their per-possession numbers (because they will generate more possessions) which is a very solid mark. It may not always be pretty, but it works, talent fits.

The Verdict

Blake Griffin is paid a ton of money and his injury history is worrisome, there is no way around those two facts. That said, if he can manage to stay on the floor enough he is going to be a blast to have in Detroit. I can't wait to see what sort of things are concocted this offseason to take advantage of him and Drummond's passing abilities together and the Pistons finally have someone other than Reggie Jackson who can be relied upon to create offense under pressure. To me, his play on the court is not going to be any sort of worry, the worry is whether or not he can be on the court enough to be worth it.

Looking Forward

Griffin is going nowhere. It is possible the team around him looks different heading into next season but I'd be shocked if Griffin (or Drummond) were moved. Given how long he is under contract there is not much question about Griffin's future with the team, he is going to be in Detroit for better or worse.

What do you think? Can he be a reliable long-range shooter? Can he commit to defense?