Clippers Rumors: No teams calling about Blake Griffin trade
By Tom West
Doc Rivers has said that no teams are calling the Los Angeles Clippers about a trade for Blake Griffin.
The Los Angeles Clippers were never trading Blake Griffin to the Boston Celtics and they were never accepting a three-team trade with the Sacramento Kings to land Rudy Gay in return. Where would the sense be in trading Griffin, arguably a top-10 player, for Gay? There wouldn’t be any, but the rumors persisted.
More reliable reports emerged to silence such rumors that the Clippers had no interest in trading Griffin. Now, we’ve heard from the team president of basketball operations, Doc Rivers himself, in an interview with The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarwoski.
When asked about the Griffin rumors, Doc quickly said that no teams are calling, because they know the Clippers aren’t interested in trading him:
"“First of all, no teams are calling right now, because teams know we don’t have any interest. It just tells you the different times. You know, things have changed. Everyone believes that they are media now, you know. And I feel like guys for you [Woj]. And there’s so many good, credible guys. And then there’s some of the guys, who are bloggers, who have nothing to do with the sport.”"
Doc also specifically addressed the Blake-to-Boston rumor, saying he and Celtics GM Danny Ainge have only talked about golf this summer and that everything traces back to a speculative radio host:
"“Danny [Ainge] and I have talked twice this summer. One was about the British Open, and one was about another gold tournament. That’s about it. But my son traced it to a Boston radio talk show, and the guy didn’t say that we had been talking, he said that Blake would be one of the guys that the Celtics should go after. That started the next step to the next step till the next thing you know it blew up.”"
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Of course, there’s always a small chance that Doc is saying what he wants the media to know — that he at least listened to Ainge mention Griffin, for example — but Doc’s words for months and reliable reports have revealed that the Clippers have no intention of trading Blake.
Given that blatant desire to keep Griffin, it isn’t too surprising if teams have stopped calling. Even if the occasional offer comes in, a prompt rejection would follow.
“I haven’t found a team this summer who told me that when they called the Clippers, they found Blake Griffin to be available,” Woj said to add to Doc’s comments.
So, unsurprisingly, we can let these rumors go to rest as we always expected. They’re bound to hang around during the NBA’s summer months, anyway. It’s what happens when teams like the Celtics want to trade and fans are bored as they wait to see what will happen.
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That being said, if teams aren’t even calling now, Griffin’s future with the Clippers next season looks even more dead certain. The next question approaching will be what happens in free agency next summer.