Getty Images Blake Griffin of the Brooklyn Nets congratulates Kyrie Irving.
Even when the general public knew that the Brooklyn Nets would likely be without their superstar point guard Kyrie Irving for most of the 2021-22 season, many still picked them to win this year’s NBA Finals. But that was because Nets general manager Sean Marks, at least on paper, had seemingly put together a formidable team that could ultimately be a championship roster. But the Nets roster was among one of the most disappointing in the league outside of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and the mid-season emergence of Bruce Brown. As a result, their season ended just as disappointingly as they were swept out of the first round of the playoffs by the Boston Celtics.
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Blake Griffin Hints at Departure From Nets in Free Agency
The Nets will have some tough decisions to make this offseason. They have already waived three of the players that they started the season with (DeAndre Bembry, James Johnson, and Jevon Carter), and others such as LaMarcus Aldridge and Blake Griffin got buried on the bench towards the end of the season. Many of their players will be free agents this summer, including Aldridge and Griffin. Griffin resigned with the Nets last summer after he was acquired mid-season by the Nets in 2021 after the Detroit Pistons bought him out. It seems as though the All-Star forward is already pondering his 2022 options in free agency. Griffin recently liked a tweet from his Twitter account that suggested a reunion with the team that drafted him, the Los Angeles Clippers.
Blake Griffin liked this Tweet about joining the Clippers next season.
Being Out of Nets Rotation Surprised Griffin
For the caliber of player that he is, Griffin could be considered one of the Nets’ biggest disappointments this season. He played himself out of the Nets rotation as he often looked like a shell of himself, averaging just 6.4 points per game. But a lot of his failures weren’t just on him. Though he was healthy all year, Griffin appeared in just 56 games for the Nets in the regular season as he was often out of Nets head coach Steve Nash’s rotation. A move that the 6-time All-Star says he never saw coming.
“Being completely out of it, though, I didn’t necessarily see that coming. But that’s not my decision,” Griffin said to ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. “As players it’s our job to do whatever coaches see best, so at this point, that’s what it is.”
Griffin Reached Out to Deandre Jordan After Being Benched
When Griffin initially fell out of the rotation, one of the first people he reached out to was DeAndre Jordan. Jordan was a player who fell out of Nash’s rotation when he was on the team during the 2020-21 season, so he was very familiar with what the Nets forward was dealing with.
“I have seen [and] have had great examples. DeAndre [Jordan] last year, he is a guy that I talked to that reached out. A lot of the guys from last year reached out. He did a really great job with it. I told him that. That is how I am going to try to do it as well,” Griffin said.
“Just be a professional and do exactly what you are supposed to do. It may sound like not good advice, but in this situation, everybody always needs to hear the right thing.”
Griffin, though not the same athlete he once was, can still provide a lot of positive things for a contender. It will be interesting to see what team he ends up with next season.
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