We’re quick in the sports media business to talk about winners and losers. Every draft pick needs to be graded by the next morning, judgement rendered well in advance of a mountain of new data coming to inform that decision in the next decade. Each trade has a winner and a loser before the players involved have even completed their physicals. The competence of front offices is decided in July, months before their newly-assembled teams take the floor. It would be like looking at my class roster tonight and assigning final grades before I meet my students next week. Of course, I’m guilty of these reactions too. At Clips Nation, we have long run immediate reaction “grade” roundtables on each minor transaction made by the organization. It’s the nature of the business. You guys don’t want to read about whether or not Paul Davis was a good pick for the Clippers at #34 in the 2006 draft (it’s a tough call: while P.J. Tucker and Paul Millsap were both still on the board, Paul Davis was part of a Clippers lineup that featured 3 Davii, along with Baron and Ricky). Even talking about whether or not the Blake Griffin trade, finalized almost a year ago on January 29th, 2018, is pushing it. I’m sure you’d rather hear about potential future targets—things that I think the Clippers could do at next month’s deadline or in next summer’s free agency period. To say that sports media is quick to react is not a criticism of individual outlets or writers—it’s simply an observation that sometimes, maybe we could benefit from having in-depth conversations about the ramifications of moves once we’ve had a little bit of time to see how subsequent events have played out. It probably won’t surprise you, then, to learn that I don’t have a clear answer to the question asked in the title. Sorry. Last year, when we asked our staff to grade the Blake Griffin trade, we got answers that ranged from F to A. I didn’t submit an answer—I was too caught up writing an emotional goodbye column to mark the end of the era—but I recall begrudgingly accepting that the trade was probably a good thing for the team long-term. A year later, while we have some new data to work with, some of the larger trends have stayed intact. Rather than taking on the impossible task of declaring definitively that either team (or both) won or lost the deal, I’ll briefly tackle each of the four arguments. Why the Clippers won the trade Blake Griffin is good. That ain’t news. But with him at the helm, the Clippers were going nowhere fast. They’d never gotten out of the second round with both Griffin and Chris Paul, and with Paul gone to Houston, the team hit last January unlikely to even make the playoffs with no clear way to improve long-term other than “stay healthier”—a solution particularly problematic for a team built around the injury-prone Danilo Gallinari and Griffin, who missed 92 games across the three prior seasons and had already sat out 16 of the Clippers’ 49 games before being traded last season. And while Griffin has been phenomenal in Detroit this year, it’s not particularly clear that his resurgence would have been possible in LAC. The emotional baggage that followed the Lob City Clippers makes itself visible at every turn, from DeAndre Jordan’s tortured 2015 free agency, to Chris Paul’s ambush of LAC’s locker room in his first return to STAPLES Center, to Blake himself snubbing a Steve Ballmer handshake ahead of today’s game. Doc Rivers revealed that he and Blake have not spoken since the trade. I don’t think that the Blake the Pistons are getting in 2019 would have been possible if he still wore a Clippers jersey. Then there’s the money. Blake makes $32 million this year—more than any player on the Clippers’ roster. He’ll make $34 million next year, $36.5 million the year after, and finally $39 million during the 2021-22 season, at 32 years old. Can you build a championship team around a 39-million-dollar, 32-year-old Blake Griffin? It seems unlikely. Add in the fact that he almost certainly would have tried to strong-arm the franchise into spending to keep DeAndre Jordan, and holding on to Blake could have capped the Clippers’ ceiling for a half-decade. Now, they have a super flexible roster with the potential to open two max salary slots next summer and lure stars like Kawhi Leonard and/or Kevin Durant. Why the Pistons won the trade Acquiring a player of Blake Griffin’s caliber is never cheap, but the Pistons needed to do it. Andre Drummond is good, and Tobias Harris is pretty good too, but Detroit knew they needed a real star to lead their team. Now they have one. Blake is averaging 25 points, a career high, having his best season from deep (36.2% on 6.4 attempts per game), and even shooting 53.7% from inside the arc, returning to heights he hadn’t reached since 2014. He also leads the Pistons in assists at 5.3 per game. The team might not be playing as well collectively as Blake is individually, but in this case, it’s not his fault. He gives the Pistons a legit star to put pieces around—they just need to do a better job finding those pieces. Compare that production to Tobias Harris, who averaged 18 points and 2 assists per game last season as a Piston, and it’s clear: Blake is a tier above, a dynamic offensive superstar who can be the creative centerpiece of your offense. Tobias isn’t quite there, and in order to make the upgrade the Pistons had to give up a late lottery pick while shedding Boban Marjanovic’s large contract and getting rid of Avery Bradley in an addition-by-subtraction move. Some folks will tell you that whichever team receives the best player in the trade won that trade. A dollar is better than four quarters, right? Well, the Pistons clearly got the best player in this deal. Everything else be damned, they can feel good about that. Why the Clippers lost the trade<doc-sep>Blake is truly a Piston now. #DetroitVsEverybody pic.twitter.com/UiAoGi4Yow — FOX Sports Detroit (@FOXSportsDet) January 12, 2019 Detroit Pistons star Blake Griffin had a very awkward interaction with Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer on Saturday afternoon. The 29-year-old forward was warming up for his game against his former squad when he was spotted by Ballmer. Griffin, who spent nine seasons in Los Angeles before he was unexpectedly traded last year by the team that drafted him, was not excited to see the former Microsoft CEO. According to Jovan Buha, the five-time All-Star avoided Ballmer like the plague. As Blake finished his warmup, Steve Ballmer was on the sideline watching and waiting. When Ballmer saw Griffin finish, he started walking towards him. Blake saw Ballmer and sped up, running away to the Pistons locker room as Ballmer yelled “Blake! Blake!” with his hand out. — Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) January 12, 2019 Griffin spoke about the trade during a podcast appearance in May 2018, saying he had not spoken to Ballmer and even joked that he “never” used Microsoft products. The 6-foot-10 forward obviously holds some animosity about the way the deal went down. It seems likely that the Clippers owner is trying to make amends, especially considering he was the least keen on trading away their superstar. Here is how Buha recently described how the trade went down (via The Athletic): “Owner Steve Ballmer and [president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank] were the two hardest to sell on the trade. Both held attachments to Griffin on a personal and professional level. After several late nights and early mornings of analysis, the Clippers finally determined that a trade with the Pistons was the right call. “ Given his personal and professional attachments to Griffin, it was likely a gut punch to be blatantly ignored at warmups during the highly anticipated return to Staples Center. But given all of the pomp and circumstance that was offered to the former franchise cornerstone before he signed a contract extension only to trade him months later, it’s fair to expect the basketball player to remain upset. Ballmer reportedly “laughed it off” after the interaction did not yield in any form of a conversation between the two parties.<doc-sep>LOS ANGELES — Blake Griffin is all business in pregame warmups. There’s not a lot of time for chit-chat – even for his former employer. The Detroit Pistons star – preparing to face the Los Angeles Clippers for the first time at Staples Center since being traded a year ago – didn’t make time to speak with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who was waiting for Griffin to conclude his warmup routine. More:Blake Griffin excelling with Pistons. But was trade worth it? The Athletic’s Jovan Buha reported the development Saturday about an hour before the Pistons try to stop a four-game losing skid against a top Western Conference team. Shortly after the scene witnessed by Buha, the Free Press witnessed Griffin sprint through a Staples Center hallway and into the visitor’s locker room – part of his normal routine. But emotions are running high since it’s no secret Griffin disliked how after signing him to a five-year, $171-million contract, calling him a “Clipper for Life,” he was traded to the Pistons months later. Pistons coach Dwane Casey noted the similarities with when he returned to Toronto this season – a night that was victorious for the Pistons against the franchise that fired Casey last offseason. “I feel it,” Casey said before the game. “I want to come in here for him and do everything we can possibly do to get him a win because it means a lot. “You always have a little extra when you go back to where you came from – whether they traded you or not.” Follow Vince Ellis on Twitter @vincent_ellis56.<doc-sep>LOS ANGELES — There was only a casual mention of playoffs. No cryptic messages signaling organizational change were offered. When Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores spoke with reporters at halftime of his team’s blowout loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night, there were no surprises. That was to be expected with Pistons coach Dwane Casey and senior adviser Ed Stefanski only entrenched since the summer. Gores just stated the obvious. The Pistons have their star in the Blake Griffin, and the organizational goal is to maximize the window of Griffin, 29, who is having a resurgent season after several campaigns marred by injuries. “We couldn’t expect more from Blake than what he’s done. He has done incredible work, and everybody didn’t know what he could do — but we couldn’t expect more,” Gores said at Staples Center. “Beyond his stats, he really has been a great leader. Do we want to build around him?” “Absolutely.” But when you consider where the two franchises involved in the blockbuster last year currently stand — the Pistons and Los Angeles Clippers — it’s fair to ask: Would the Pistons do the deal again? It's hard to say, considering the two men who helped to consummate the deal — former team president Stan Van Gundy and former general manager Jeff Bower — no longer are with the franchise. Gores wanted a star — he has said, in fact, that the Pistons need two. But it's fair to wonder what’s next for the franchise that has the expensive Griffin, but little else. Clippers rising, Pistons sinking Griffin and the Pistons face the Clippers on Saturday; it's Griffin’s first time facing the franchise that drafted him No. 1 overall in 2009 on the Staples Center floor. It will be the second time the Pistons face the Clippers since the trade that landed Griffin for Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley and what eventually became the 12th pick of the 2018 NBA draft. Join the conversation: Don't see the poll? Try this. The Clippers won the initial meeting against Griffin at Little Caesars Arena last February, nearly two weeks after the trade. And the Clippers (24-17) are playing well this season, entering Friday in fifth in the tough Western Conference. Harris is in the conversation to represent the Clippers in next month’s NBA All-Star Game. And the trade freed the Clippers from paying most of the five-year, $171 million deal Griffin signed in the summer of 2017. They now have the cap space to sign not one, but two maximum contract players next offseason. The Pistons (17-23) have lost 16 of their last 20 games and are two games behind the Charlotte Hornets for the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. Griffin isn’t the problem — although he was rested in Thursday night’s loss at Sacramento. He is averaging a career-high 25.1 points per game and leads the team in assists at 5.3 per game. Surprisingly, Griffin statistically has been the second-best 3-point shooter on the team at 36 percent. His true shooting percentage, approaching 60 percent, is a career high and his usage rate is just below his career high. The Pistons’ points-per-100-possessions rate is 10 points higher when he is on the floor. He only is sixth in All-Star balloting in the Eastern Conference among frontcourt players, but Griffin still is likely headed to Charlotte for the All-Star Game. While his contract is part of the reason the Pistons lack financial flexibility through next season, Griffin is living up to his end of the deal. Griffin has heard the noise questioning his place among the game’s best players — although he has learned not to worry about the whispers. “It’s more important for me as a player, my teammates, my coaches, everybody who is in this organization fighting for wins to know I’m in here doing the right things,” Griffin said. “All the outside stuff is opinions. You can take all these numbers, take them and turn them into whatever you want — for either side. As long as I’m doing things to help this team win, all of that stuff is just outside noise.” Griffin’s impact beyond the floor Gores hosted the team this week at Platinum Equity, the California-based private equity firm he founded in 1995. More from Seidel:Tom Gores has done everything except fix Pistons After a short tour, the team gathered in a room. It was Glenn Robinson III's birthday and the team’s rookies — Bruce Brown and Khyri Thomas — were called into service. They were tasked with providing the cake and instructed to sing “Happy Birthday.” When a staff member started to join in, Griffin stopped her. Rookies only. Griffin, the team leader, set the tone of the gathering — this time a light, humorous setting. He typically addresses the media after games, dutifully carrying out his role as the face of the franchise. Casey also consults with the five-time All-Star, who won a lot of games with the Clippers. Griffin leads by example. He’s probably the hardest-working guy on the team. And despite his injury history, he has no issue with taking charges, leading the league with 17. After drawing two charges in the Pistons' victory at Memphis, Griffin explained why that practice is more than just stopping offenses. “It can be a little deflating for teams,” Griffin said. “It’s not only getting a stop and an offensive foul. (Grizzlies center) Marc Gasol, or anybody, has to think about it the next time they come in there. Any guard has to think about it the next time they come in there. It’s kind of a momentum builder. Coaches reward plays like that. It’s a big thing and it’s part of being a good defensive player. I think it gets overlooked sometimes as part of being a good defender.” Teammates notice. “The guy being a superstar, it’s big time,” Thomas said. “It’s not just being a superstar, it’s having a guy who’s been in the league for a while. “It’s cool to have those guys around to teach me everything — how to handle adversity, tough situations, it’s good.<doc-sep>
Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer tried to talk to Blake Griffin before Griffin’s return game to Los Angeles on Saturday, and it didn’t go so well. Ballmer hung out by the sidelines while Griffin finished his pre-game shooting routine, and once he was done, went in for a handshake. But Griffin SPRINTED right past him. Blake is truly a Piston now. #DetroitVsEverybody pic.twitter.com/UiAoGi4Yow — FOX Sports Detroit (@FOXSportsDet) January 12, 2019 After the game, Griffin clarified on his actions, by saying he was following his usual routine. Here’s what he said: Blake Griffin addresses not shaking Steve Ballmer’s hand pre-game: pic.twitter.com/faHBCI7fpo — Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) January 12, 2019 Griffin: As soon as Im done doing my pregame shooting, I make sure there’s a path and I take off to the locker room running and I don’t stop running. So a lot of you know that. A lot of you have been here for a long time and have seen me do that before. I don’t change that for anybody. To tweet out something like that was kinda bullshit because you know that. But that’s what it was plain and simple. It wasn’t anything planned. Every single game I’ve done this for I don’t know how long. When asked if he’d shake Ballmer’s hand in another setting, he replied, “I’m not here to answer hypothetical questions to be honest.” Griffin might not be over the Jan. 2018 trade that came six months after he signed a five-year, $171 million contract to stay in L.A. That signing followed an elaborate pitch from the Clippers that took Griffin through a maize at Staples Center, which ended with a simulation of what his jersey retirement would look like. During the broadcast on Saturday afternoon, Clippers play-by-play announce Ralph Lawler said that Griffin even blew him off when the two teams played in Detroit after the trade last season. All that promise from the franchise, only to ship him off to shed salary, had to burn for Griffin. The Clippers played a tribute video for him, and Griffin waved to the crowd, but otherwise, he kept a stone face on throughout the game as he dominated the court for a 109-104 win. Blake Griffin tribute video pic.twitter.com/rL4C5zDsT6 — Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) January 12, 2019 He finished with 44 points on 23 shots with eight rebounds and five assists. the best of Blake Griffin's (26 PTS) big 1st half in LA! #DetroitBasketball pic.twitter.com/kmxTPUNkaI — NBA (@NBA) January 12, 2019 But nothing will be clear on the beef front until somebody speaks.