“Making his first appearance on the Pistons court, he is the five-time All Star, all-NBA performer, put your hands together, the new Piston to seeee, number 23, Blake Griffin!”
The golden tones of Detroit Pistons PA announcer John Mason rang loud and proud as Blake Griffin, Clipper for life, was introduced as a Piston during his debut Thursday evening against the Memphis Grizzlies.
“Give him a big Detroit welcome!”
The fans present did so. But you couldn’t fail to notice the sea of blue t-shirts draped on top of empty red seats that read ‘Blake Griffin, Welcome to Detroit’.
Even on this night, such a significant occasion, the arena looked as it has all season.
There were cheers when Griffin collected his first defensive rebound, when he scored the Pistons’ first points of the night on an acrobatic layup, and oohs and aahs when he brought the ball up and put a spin move on his defender. He ended with 24 points and 10 rebounds, shooting 13 free throws to the delight of the more analytic fans, and even got a Gatorade shower from Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson afterward.
But that arena. Blue shirts in the premium level, empty red seats in the upper bowl. It didn’t look like a ‘we’re excited to have you’ setting. It looked as if nothing had changed despite the significance of the night.
“Over the past decade, the Pistons have been an uninteresting and non-competitive team with very few exceptions”, says Duncan Smith, who covers the team for The Athletic.
In that time period the Pistons have lost 479 regular season games, finishing over .500 twice with just three playoff appearances. The move for Griffin is an attempt to change that.
The team are currently one game out of the playoffs and have acquired an All-Star talent in Griffin, 29 in March and someone with a hefty injury history but also with season averages of 22.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and a career high 34% from beyond the arc. The Pistons are pairing Griffin with Drummond, an invigorated All-Star who is playing off the dribble, bouncing around with energy and shooting free throws like never before.
Griffin's addition could be seen as a desperate move in desperate times, a team who in beating the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday fielded a starting five that included Ish Smith, Stanley Johnson, Reggie Bullock and Anthony Tolliver. But the team wants to win again; it wants to make the playoffs, and it wants to breath life back into a fanbase and brand new arena that is, to say the least, down in the doldrums.
“Detroit is a Lions [NFL] city through and through”, Smith says.
In that time period the Pistons have lost 479 regular season games, finishing over .500 twice with just three playoff appearances. The move for Griffin is an attempt to change that.
The team are currently one game out of the playoffs and have acquired an All-Star talent in Griffin, 29 in March and someone with a hefty injury history but also with season averages of 22.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and a career high 34% from beyond the arc. The Pistons are pairing Griffin with Drummond, an invigorated All-Star who is playing off the dribble, bouncing around with energy and shooting free throws like never before.
Griffin's addition could be seen as a desperate move in desperate times, a team who in beating the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday fielded a starting five that included Ish Smith, Stanley Johnson, Reggie Bullock and Anthony Tolliver. But the team wants to win again; it wants to make the playoffs, and it wants to breath life back into a fanbase and brand new arena that is, to say the least, down in the doldrums.
“Detroit is a Lions [NFL] city through and through”, Smith says.