LA Clippers Rumors: ‘No sign’ Blake Griffin wants to sign with Thunder

Rumors about 2017 NBA free agency will begin early, and it’s (unsurprisingly) been reported that there is “no sign” of Blake Griffin wanting to leave the LA Clippers for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The LA Clippers may have lost 111-107 in the final seconds at home on Wednesday against the Memphis Grizzlies, but they’ve still had a tremendously dominant start to the 2016-17 season. The return of a healthy Blake Griffin has been a key component of their 10-2 record, yet, no matter how successful and happy he may be in Los Angeles, 2017 NBA free agency rumors are still beginning. This time, to further eradicate the chance of him signing with the Oklahoma City Thunder next summer.

ESPN’s Zach Lowe reported in a great piece breaking down how the Thunder are adapting and building around Russell Westbrook that there is “no sign” of Griffin wanting to return home to Oklahoma:

"There is no sign Blake Griffin wants to come home, per several sources. Extensions for [Steven] Adams and [Victor] Oladipo have Oklahoma City capped out this summer even if they slough off [Enes] Kanter’s deal; depending on what happens with [Andre] Roberson in free agency, they might have to cut money from next season’s payroll just to duck the luxury tax. It’s unclear if they’ll even have meaningful room in the summer of 2018."

As Lowe added, the Thunder have plenty of money already invested in the salary of Enes Kanter ($17.88 million for 2017-18), the recently extended contracts of Steven Adams ($22.47 million) and Victor Oladipo  ($21 million), and obviously Russell Westbrook ($28.53 million) for next season.

With these salaries combining to a lofty total of $89.88 million, the Thunder find themselves fairly close to capped out of the 2017-18 salary cap ($102 million) with these four players alone. Finding a way to shift pieces and clear salary for significant acquisitions won’t be easy.

Lowe did add that the Thunder are still interested in trading for a new wing, though, specifically Rudy Gay, who’s off to an excellent start this season with 21.3 points per game on 47.7 percent shooting (42.4 percent from three).

As for Griffin, well, it sounds like the Thunder are even more out of the picture than they were already for 2017 NBA free agency. We’ve heard before that Griffin was interested in staying put, and this only adds more support to that belief.

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It makes total sense, too. Even though Griffin would have notable talent to join in Oklahoma City, and he could return to his hometown and the place he went to college, there are so many reasons why he might rather stay in L.A.

For a start, not everyone wants the distraction and familiarity of playing in their hometown, which is clearly the case for Griffin when looking at such reports. On top of that, besides the likes of Chris Paul (who can test free agency next year with his player option) and DeAndre Jordan already being his teammates, all Griffin’s off-court ventures can be pursued in L.A. better than anywhere else.

He’s an avid fan of comedy and film, already dabbling in some stand up this summer and running his own movie production company, and such interests make L.A. a perfect fit for him. This could easily help rule out other teams vying for his services, too, although we’ll obviously have to wait and see if any interest from him in other franchises is reported.

Next: Can Chris or Blake win MVP this season?

From what we know so far and Lowe’s new report, it sounds like the Blake Griffin-LA Clippers partnership will be continuing past 2017.