Clippers Rumors: Blake Griffin’s leg causing trade concern for others

The Los Angeles Clippers are not looking to trade Blake Griffin, but other teams are reportedly concerned with the state of his leg and may hesitate when targeting him, anyway.

Blake Griffin isn’t being traded to the Boston Celtics, and the Los Angeles Clippers certainly aren’t accepting a package of Rudy Gay and a bunch of draft picks in a three-team trade for him. It’s not happening and that’s been confirmed by far more sound reports to set aside the speculation that has intensified so much over the last week.

However, one interesting piece of information that appeared in a recent report is that while the Clippers are not having trade talks with other teams about Griffin, other front offices believe that his leg is a serious concern when even thinking about pursuing him.

Last season, Griffin suffered a partial quadricep tear on the Clippers’ Christmas Day game against the Lakers which sidelined him for a good couple of months (before he broke his right hand in the Matias Testi incident). Then, in the playoffs, Griffin’s quadricep caused him more problems, removing him early from Game 4 against the Portland Trail Blazers, and ultimately ruling him out for the rest of the season.

Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald has reported that along with the matter of Griffin being able to opt out of his contract next summer, other teams are hesitant to pursue him due to concern with the state of his leg:

"But, according to one opposing team exec, there is another question with Griffin.“I still think there’s a concern with his leg,” he said, referring to a partially torn left quad tendon that cost Griffin serious time last season and never fully healed before causing him to miss the end of the playoffs. He reportedly received a bone marrow injection following the season, which is keeping him off the U.S. Olympic team.“We looked into him, and we’re hearing that’s a pretty serious thing,” the source continued. “I’m not saying you don’t go after him, but you’d better be really sure about that leg before you go making any big commitments.”"

First off, this makes matters easier for Doc Rivers when he’s on the phone rejecting weak offers for Griffin if he doesn’t have as many teams inquiring. It’s not something the Clippers are looking into given Griffin’s important in terms of talent, to the team’s title chances, and to keeping the best team possible to encourage Chris Paul to re-sign in free agency next summer if he opts out of his contract (which every player surely will).

On the other hand, it’s never good to hear that Griffin’s leg condition is “serious” or worthy of concern when thinking about the future. Of course, that may only be for the time being as he recovers from the bone marrow injection he underwent after the season. Other teams looking in on the Clippers won’t have the same intel on his injury either.

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We haven’t heard of any other complications or anything to suggest that either Griffin or Paul (who broke his hand in the same playoff game) won’t be healthy by the end of summer and ready to train hard as the season approaches.

So, hopefully for Blake and the Clippers, the severity of his injury — according to other front offices — comes down to them being hesitant to offer too much when they’re planning long-term.

Either way, no matter how hard teams may try, it makes far more sense for the Clippers to keep him.

As for those rumors on the activity of the Celtics, they’re still looking for a move.

“Oh, Danny definitely wants to do something,” said one rival general manager to Bulpett. “We’ve got nothing that really works with Boston, but I bet something happens there.”

Next: Why on earth would Clippers trade Blake for Rudy Gay?

As the summer continues, we’ll keep you updated on the status of Griffin’s recovery when reports emerge. In the meantime, you can keep ignoring the idea that he’s going to Boston.