Miami Heat: Boston’s Blake Griffin signing sees another PF off the table

Miami Heat: Though Not A ‘Star’, Blake Griffin Still Offer Tons To The Right Team

Although Griffin’s outside shooting percentages aren’t terrific, it wasn’t that long ago that those efficiencies were beginning to come around. En route to his sixth All-Star selection in 2019, he was having the best shooting season of his career from beyond the arc (36 percent and hitting189 of 522 attempts).

Griffin is also an excellent passer for his position and the first realm of possibilities to think of would’ve been a potential combination with a potent roll-man like Bam Adebayo. This would’ve given Griffin a lob threat—as he had with DeAndre Jordan for many years in Los Angeles.

Even further on Griffin’s potential fit with Adebayo, the most underrated aspect of Griffin’s game is his ability to defend in drop coverage. It was seen during the 2021 postseason, where at 6’9″ and 250 pounds, he can still rotate, contest a physical defender, and can match up with larger players.

This would’ve allowed for the all-world defender this is Adebayo to guard perimeter players even further. Blake Griffin is still a quality option that teams should have wanted on their roster.

It was, of course, a cheap signing for Boston, who will have Al Horford under contract for over $26 million this season. Nonetheless, whether Miami’s need to acquire a capable four is considered major or minor, seeing capable fours sign with other contending teams should be a tough pill to swallow.

While Blake Griffin wouldn’t have filled every void that a player such as P.J. Tucker left behind, he was certainly a fit for the job. He’s a player who, not only, meets those lofty conditioning requirements and has a balanced skillset, but a player who’s seen nearly every level of competition.

The Miami Heat’s summer catalog of free agents wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it remains to be seen if they have a player who can make up for their positional need for the entirety of a season. For now though, the opportunity to grasp that starting spot is there and they have a handful of players who are determined to step up, Caleb Martin in one example.

And perhaps, he’ll do just that and none of this will even matter—well, hopefully.