12 ESPN Trade Machine-Approved Deals For Blake Griffin

Blake and 'Bron? With only a couple days left before the trade deadline, we explore the possibilities.

By 
Feb 17, 2016
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Turn on the Woj tweet notifications, keep an eye on your timeline, and get ready to argue about why Dwight Howard is the missing piece to your squad's championship puzzle because it's NBA trade deadline week! That wonderful time of year when one team's marginal bench warmer becomes another team's savior.  When teams with no shot at a title unload their assets and when dreams of ticker tape parades are tied to guys like Ersan Ilyasova and P.J. Hairston. Which, in reality, is definitely sad.

Sometimes, though, real NBA stars are traded. Recently, Blake Griffin has been the subject of such trade rumors. In the past we've examined possible deals for Carmelo Anthony, Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Kobe Bryant, and the NBA in general—but a lot of these were just dreams. This time, in the case of Blake Griffin, there's a sense that much of this is really possible. Blake's out here breaking his hand punching Clippers employees and the team wins 18 of 23 games without him? Regardless of what Doc Rivers may say: Blake could get dealt.

Below are 12 possible trade scenarios with 12 different trade partners. Who knows? One of them may go down before Thursday. These are 12 ESPN Trade Machine-Approved Deals For Blake Griffin.

Blake Ends The Process™

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Team(s) involved: Sixers

Player(s) involved: Jahlil Okafor, Robert Covington, Carl Landry

Wins gained: -4

The 76ers' on-court product has looked like hot garbage (although the heat has cooled on the garbage since Ish Smith joined the team in late December), but that doesn't mean they lack the ammo necessary to take a shot at Griffin. With plenty of high-upside young players and up to four first-round picks this year, they have assets. Do the Clippers want to wait on a 20 year-old Jahlil Okafor to develop while their championship window closes? Probably not. But a deal featuring a possible future All-Star and picks to net another might be too good to pass up. —Maurice Peebles (@tallmaurice) 

LeBron and Blake Carpool in a Kia

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Team(s) involved: Cavaliers

Player(s) involved: Kevin Love, Timofey Mozgov, Luc Mbah a Moute

Wins gained: -4

Think Kevin Love wants to hang around freezing Cleveland while getting yelled at by LeBron James and not included in any of the fun post-game Instagram photos? Or would he rather go back home to Southern California to relax and...get yelled at by Chris Paul? Who knows? All that matters is these numbers work out and perhaps a change of scenery would be good for both guys.  —Maurice Peebles (@tallmaurice) 

Beantown Blake

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Team(s) involved: Celtics

Player(s) involved: David Lee, Marcus Smart

Wins gained: -9

Celtics fans never want to trade anyone. They're probably mad at the idea of trading Marcus Smart, even in a deal that nets them one of the best players in the world. It's remarkable loyalty from C's fans. Remarkably dumb, too. Putting Blake Griffin in Celtics green would be like planting a money tree in Boston for the team's owners. Don't think there'd be anyone in New England without at least a Griffin t-shirt jersey. —Maurice Peebles (@tallmaurice) 

Blake Goes Home

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Team(s) involved: Thunder

Player(s) involved: Kevin Durant

Wins gained: +7

Yes, there would probably need to be some cash or picks involved here. But if Kevin Durant is destined to leave Oklahoma City anyway, it makes sense for the Thunder to get something in return. In Griffin, the Thunder not only get another star, but one who was born in Oklahoma City and played at nearby Oklahoma. The Clippers, of course, become absolutely terrifying. —Russ Bengtson (@RussBengtson)

Reset Button

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Team(s) involved: Bulls

Player(s) involved: Joakim Noah, Bobby Portis, Cameron Bairstow

Wins gained: -1

Bear with me for a second here. Yes, the values seem tremendously lopsided in this deal. But Noah comes off the books this summer and Portis is locked into a rookie deal. If they let Noah walk they free up a decent chunk of cap space and can play Portis at the 4. And the Bulls get to keep their window open a little while longer. —Russ Bengtson (@RussBengtson) 

L.A. to A.T.L.

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Team(s) involved: Hawks

Player(s) involved: Paul Millsap

Wins gained: -1

This is one of those rare trades that seems to give both teams something the other desperately needs. The Clippers could use some stability—less personality, if you will—and the Hawks need some star power in a sense that's bigger than just All-Star appearances. Paul Millsap is a steady talent, and he should slot right in next to DeAndre Jordan. And Blake gives the talented but bland Hawks some spark. What's not to like? —Russ Bengtson (@RussBengtson)

Same City, Same Buiding, New Identity

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Team(s) involved: Lakers

Player(s) involved: Roy Hibbert, Julius Randle

Wins gained: -6

This would never happen, but it kind of makes sense for both teams. The Lakers need a superstar with Kobe calling it quits and Julius Randle can continue his development for the Clippers on the cheap for years to come. Throw in some Lakers picks and it makes sense. ** Tupac voice ** Let me serenade the streets of L.A.! —Adam Caparell (@AdamCaparell) 

 

BG + PP = MSG?

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Team(s) involved: Knicks

Player(s) involved: Carmelo Anthony, Derrick Williams, Paul Pierce, Pablo Prigioni

Wins gained: -2

If you're a Knicks fan and believe keeping Carmelo is the right move, you're a fool. Carmelo, of course, has to sign off on this trade, but he spends time during the off-season in L.A. when he's not sipping Bordeaux in the Bahamas with his buddy Chris Paul, and needs to get the hell out of New York if he ever wants to get past the second round of the playoffs again. As for Knicks fans, watching Blake and Kristaps Porzingis assault the rim 82 times a year sounds amazing. Plus NYC gets to make "the life of Pablo (Prigioni)" jokes for the rest of the year. —Adam Caparell (@AdamCaparell)

Mile High Migration

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Team(s) involved: Nuggets

Player(s) involved: Kenneth Faried, Will Barton

Wins gained: +2

Blake to Denver was what basically started this whole thing. And I guess acquiring him makes sense considering the Nuggets are not in the same division, have basically been an afterthought since shipping Carmelo, and currently reside in NBA purgatory (not good enough for the playoffs, not bad enough for a high lottery pick). So it's time to do something drastic. Plus, that thin air has to add an inch to his vertical so Denver should just do it for the dunks. —Adam Caparell (@AdamCaparell) 

 

If You're Reading This It's Too Blake

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Team(s) involved: Raptors

Player(s) involved: DeMar DeRozan, Patrick Patterson, C.J. Wilcox

Wins gained: 0

The Raptors are 35-16 right now and just two games behind the Cavaliers for the top spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race. And you know who thinks they have a legit chance to win the NBA title this season? *crickets* No one. It feels like Drake has actually been to more Warriors games than Raptors games this season. Toronto could change their perception in a hurry, though, by bringing in a legit superstar like Griffin. He might be a little bit wary about playing in the place where he broke his hand recently, but we’re sure he would get over it once he realized that he wouldn’t have to worry about taking part in the gauntlet that is the Western Conference Playoffs anymore. —Chris Yuscavage (@CYuscavage)

 

H-Town Swap

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Team(s) involved: Rockets

Player(s) involved: Dwight Howard

Wins gained: -3

Does Doc Rivers want to force the NBA to eliminate the “Hack-a-Player” strategy from the league? Then all he needs to do is pull the trigger on this trade. After the first seven-hour game that featured DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard shooting 30 free throws each, Adam Silver would definitely come around to the idea of putting in a rule to prevent teams from intentionally fouling players. Plus, as an added bonus, we’d get two months of Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant playing in the same building and (hopefully!) crossing paths on a regular basis. WHAT COULD GO WRONG? —Chris Yuscavage (@CYuscavage) 

 

Dirk's Heir

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Team(s) involved: Mavericks

Player(s) involved: Wesley Matthews, Chandler Parsons, Lance Stephenson

Wins gained: -6

Yeah, so something tells us Doc Rivers and Mark Cuban aren’t going to be doing business together anytime soon. Or, well, ever. But if Rivers has a guilty conscience and feels like he needs to make amends for stealing DeAndre Jordan from right under Cuban’s nose last summer, he could make up for it by sending one of his other superstars in Dallas’ direction to help usher in the post-Dirk Nowitzki era. If he’s feeling really bad about what happened last summer, he could also include Stephenson in the package since Born Ready is another player who verbally committed to the Mavs once back in 2014 before ultimately taking his talents to the Hornets. After this, Cuban wouldn’t be allowed to complain about the DeAndre thing ever again, and we would all win in the end. —Chris Yuscavage (@CYuscavage)

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