Hypothetical Trade Time

 Should the Celtics Trade for Blake Griffin?

    The Celtics were able to acquire a trade exception through the sign-and-trade of Gordon Hayward. A trade exception allows for a team to basically use free money in order to match the salaries to acquire a player through a trade. The Celtics are in somewhat unprecedented territory, as this traded player exception is the largest in NBA history at 28.5mil. The closest example to a use of a TPE this large was the Memphis Grizzlies at the beginning of last season. Memphis used the 25 million dollar trade exception, created from the trading of Mike Conley to the Utah Jazz. Unlike the Celtics, the Grizzlies were rebuilding, they used this money to acquire Andre Iguodala as a salary dump to acquire picks. The trade for Iguodala absorbed 17 million, while they used the remaining money to take a flier on Josh Jackson from the Suns. 

    So why should the Celtics trade for Blake Griffin? Griffin is a high risk, high reward player at this point in his career. He has been injured for most of the last few seasons, but his last healthy season (2018-2019) he was 3rd team All-NBA. Griffin is still athletic, and is a good shooter and playmaker for the power forward position. The Celtics already have their two cornerstones locked up, and are looking to contend in the east. Griffin will make 36.5 this year and 38.9 next year, assuming he opts into his player option. Normally this would be a massive overpay, but the upcoming free agent class is very weak, and the Celtics wouldn't be able to spend very much in free agency anyways. Lastly, I think Griffin is fun and I've always wanted him on the Celtics. Now in order to make the trade happen it would have to look like this, plus the Celtics 28.5 million dollar TPE. This makes sense for the Cs because Theis and Semi are expiring deals, which I don't believe they intend on keeping and Carsen Edwards doesn't look like he will crack Boston's rotation anytime soon.

    Why does this deal make sense for the Pistons? The Pistons are bad, and they have no real intention of competing within the next two years. Griffin would be dumb to turn down 38 millions dollars at his age with his injury history. This trade would basically help to speed up the rebuilding process for Detroit. Theis and Ojeleye are expiring deals so it would free up additional cap space for the upcoming free agency or whatever other roster moves they would like to make. They also would receive Carsen Edwards at a very low rate, and with a rebuilding team it wouldn't hurt to take a flyer on him. 

    This is all optimism as I think it would improve the Celtics as well as free up minutes for a guy I really like, Robert Williams. I think it makes sense for both teams in order to take a step in the right direction.