Nine players on the Detroit Pistons have attempted at least one dunk this season. Mason Plumlee leads the way with 48 dunks on 52 attempts. Jerami Grant is 22 for 24. But more surprising than who's on the list is who doesn't appear on it at all: Blake Griffin.
And it looks like Detroit fans may never see another Blake Griffin dunk as a member of the Pistons. According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, who had a near identical report earlier in the day regarding Cavaliers big man Andre Drummond, Griffin will be benched until the Pistons can figure out what his future looks like and how they can unload him from the organization.
GM Troy Weaver told ESPN that the Pistons "respect all the effort Blake has put forth in Detroit and his career and will work to achieve a positive outcome for all involved." Griffin, in his own statement, showed his mutual respect for the organization.
"I am grateful to the Pistons for understanding what I want to accomplish in my career and for working together on the best path forward," Griffin said.
A trade would obviously be ideal for the Pistons, as getting anything for Griffin's monstrous contract would have to be considered a win.
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That's the tricky part, though. Pistons writer James L. Edwards listed Griffin in the "not going anywhere" category of his Pistons trade tiers, citing the fact that Detroit would likely need to add some form of draft capital as incentive to get his contract off of their hands and into another team's books, which isn't preferable.
That leaves a buyout as the more likely option, then, though Wojnarowski mentioned that they'll continue to search the trade market until the deadline in hopes that a deal can come into being. That leaves the question of which teams would be interested in a player like the 31-year-old Griffin, a six-time All-Star who can still produce in a number of ways on the floor, and you'd have to figure there would be a nice list of suitors.
On the year, Griffin is averaging a career-low 12.3 points to go along with 5.3 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game.
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