When the Pistons pivoted to a rebuild last season, their best player became the elephant in the room: What to do with Blake Griffin?
"That’s up to the front office and what they want to do and how they want to go about it," he said back in June. "At a certain time, at the right time, I’ll have those conversations."
It's a big 'if,' of course. Griffin, 31, has dealt with multiple knee injuries the past two years. He lasted just 18 games this season before opting for surgery. The hope is that he returns next season looking and feeling more like himself.
The early signs are positive. Griffin was in Detroit last week to take part in a few workouts at the team facility and instantly gave his young teammates a boost.
"The way he looks, he’s ready to roll," head coach Dwane Casey said on a video call with local media Wednesday. "When he was in last week, the whole gym lit up. Just his presence, the tone he set in the weight room and on the court, it was great to have him in. I think he came in letting everybody know, 'The sheriff’s back in town.'"
Griffin isn't quite back to 100 percent, but he's close. All the extra time this offseason has allowed him to take his rehab slow; his surgery was in February. He told reporters last week he feels a 'world of difference' compared to last season, when he was clearly hobbled out of the gate.
When the gates open next season, the Pistons are ready to let Griffin run. Casey said the team has no plans to scale back his role, and the same goes for fellow veteran Derrick Rose.
"Blake’s coming in with the same ass-kicking role he was in when (he was healthy)," said Casey. "There’s going to be no stepping back for him or Derrick, as far as their role of setting the tone to compete to win. We would be doing Blake a disservice if we asked him to do anything else but come in and try to kick ass for the 35, 36 minutes he’s in the game."
He's done it here before. In his first full season with the Pistons, Griffin played 35 minutes a night and carried the team to the playoffs. Along the way, he proved to his critics that he could adapt his game to today's NBA.
“We'll have a lot of young guys, so spending a lot of time with them and really setting the foundation," he said last week. "Making sure that all these guys understand what Pistons basketball is all about."