There’s a Blake Griffin-Trail Blazers trade rumor floating around the internet

Not even Blake Griffin playing basketball better than anyone in the 2015 NBA Playoffs can keep the forward’s name out of trade rumors.

Remember when many believed Griffin should’ve been traded for Carmelo Anthony so Chris Paul could be paired with the perimeter scorer he desperately needed to advanced in the playoffs a few years back? Last year, Griffin was connected to the all-LeBron-everything summer though nothing advanced past the rumor stage. This time the rumor connects Griffin to the Portland Trail Blazers, as told by Yahoo’s Marc Spears on John Canzano’s “Bald-Faced Truth radio show.

"“This is a rumor. Let me say that three times. This is a rumor. This a rumor. This is a rumor,” Spears said. “Blake Griffin. Obviously, there’s a connection there with the GM. And you wonder, if LaMarcus is interested in the Clippers, playing with Chris Paul. Could Neil Olshey get his old superstar with the Clippers in Portland?”“I think you get to a point where – Neil is smart. You’ve got to have a come-to-Jesus meeting with LaMarcus and say, “Hey, do you really want to be here or do you think you want to go. Because f you really want to go, help us – the same way Steve Nash helped the Suns. Don’t just walk away. Try to help out Portland in the process.”"

With Aldridge being an unrestricted fre eagent this summer, his name will be connected to many teams, whether it be through a possible sign-and-trade scenario or outright signing. But the Clippers aren’t one of those teams.

What Spears omits is the most important part of a possible Aldridge-Griffin swap: Aldridge to Los Angeles doesn’t happen without Los Angeles’ compliance. As bad a decision maker Doc Rivers has been in his two years with the team, even he wouldn’t cross that line as the team general president.

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And then there’s the obvious: not only is Griffin younger than Aldridge by three years — giving the Clippers a chance to sustain the recent success for nearly a decade as Griffin grows into one of the league’s best veterans barring injury as Chris Paul grows closer to retirement — he’s the better player at this point in their career’s. This season, both players played at an All-Star level, with Aldridge averaging a career-high 23.4 points per game and 10.2 rebounds per game and Griffin averaging 21.9 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 5.3 assists, but in the post-season, Griffin pulled closer to Anthony Davis and further away from Aldridge in the hypothetical power forward standings thanks to the ability to control the game as a playmaker rather than as a scorer only, which is pretty much Aldridge’s niche at this point.

To put it simply, there’s little reason for Clippers fans to worry about Griffin being the face of the Clippers after this year. Unless a generational talent finds itself on the trading block (Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant), Griffin’ll be a Clipper … until his contract runs out in the summer of 2017.

From there? Can’t guarantee anything, but until then this rumor will be just that: a rumor.