Since his trade to the Pistons at the end of January, Griffin had routinely deferred to Drummond and the veteran guard Reggie Jackson. Out of respect for Drummond’s longevity in Detroit — this is his seventh season here — Griffin is still ushered onto the floor fourth out of the five starters. Said the veteran Detroit guard Ish Smith: “We tried to tell him last year, ‘No, Blake, you’re the guy.’ This year, you can see a different mind-set. The whirlwind after the trade was such that Griffin barely got to know Detroit in the second half of the 2017-18 season. I can’t tell you one day that I woke up going, ‘Man, I wish I was in L.A.’ I mean that.”

Source: New York Times October 31, 2018 17:55 UTC