Blake Griffin joined the Brooklyn Nets last season with the hopes of winning a championship.
Unfortunately, due to all of the dysfunction that followed around Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, that goal failed to materialize.
Griffin also ended up playing a far smaller role than he anticipated when he joined the Nets – sometimes to his frustration. He made his annoyance with head coach Steve Nash no secret. Beyond that, he was also quite open regarding why Brooklyn struggled so badly versus the Boston Celtics in the first round.
While Griffin’s stats — 6.4 points per game on 42.5 percent shooting from the field and 26.2 percent from beyond the arc — don’t jump off the page, they were at least partially due to bad utilization. The Nets very clearly didn’t know how to use him.
Now that Griffin’s time in New York is over, the obvious question is: what’s next?
As it turns out, three teams are very legit potential suitors for him.
According to NBA insider Sean Deveney, the Miami Heat have interest in Griffin.
“He made a big, big impression around the league with the way he played against Boston, even though it was just a couple of games,” one Eastern Conference executive noted.
Beyond that, the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers also appear to be in the hunt – primarily due to location. As reported by Bleacher Report NBA insider Jake Fischer, Griffin is eyeing a return to L.A. – where he played the vast majority of his career.
The Clippers are very stacked at this point, so it’s hard to see them finding room for Griffin on the roster. The Lakers, meanwhile, could definitely use him in a supporting role. Specifically if he can stay healthy and get back to hitting the three-ball like he did in 2020-21 when he nailed 38.3 percent of his shots from beyond the arc.
Griffin comes with some odd quirks. The way he feels the need to mock and make fun of the Detroit Pistons has been and continues to be weird.
But he is also skilled in certain aspects of the game that could be beneficial to both the Heat and Lakers.
Where will he ultimately end up when it’s all said and done?
Time will tell.
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