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Blake Griffin Signs With Brooklyn Nets

The Brooklyn Nets have signed Blake Griffin, bringing the 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward with the All-NBA resume to Brooklyn.

Griffin fortifies a Brooklyn frontcourt that has quickly filled up, after the Nets regularly started four guards in the stretch before the All-Star break. Nic Claxton returned to action with four games before the All-Star break after missing the first two months, and rookie Reggie Perry is back from his month in the G League with Long Island. Kevin Durant last played on Feb. 13 and Jeff Green missed four of the last five games before the All-Star break. When all are back, head coach Steve Nash will have more options and flexibility up front than he’s had since the Nets sent out four players to acquire James Harden.

“I’m sure he wants to win. If he’s passed up more money to obviously stay in Detroit, he wants to win and he wants to have an opportunity to play meaningful minutes and I’m assuming that’s one of the reasons why he came,“ said James Harden. “Obviously, we know the athletic and high-jumping Blake, but as of these last couple years, he’s knocking down the three-ball a little bit better, the ball-handling is a lot better. He can be a great contribution to this team.”

Griffin played seven-plus seasons alongside Nets center DeAndre Jordan in Los Angeles, with the pair teaming with Chris Paul to front a Clippers resurgence that led to six straight playoff appearances. In his seven full seasons with the Clippers, Griffin was named to 2010-11 Rookie of the Year, went to five All-Star Games and earned four All-NBA selections while averaging 21.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game.

Traded to Detroit midway through the 2017-18 season, Griffin returned to the All-Star Game the following season while gaining his fifth career All-NBA selection, averaging 24.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.4 assists, shooting 36.2 percent from 3-point range on a career-high 7.0 attempts per game in 2018-19. But he was limited to just 18 games last season and was averaging 12.3 points on 36.5 percent shooting over 20 games this year before agreeing to a buyout with the Pistons.