Bobby Marks: On Detroit applying for the $9.3M DPE * $3…

Bobby Marks: On Detroit applying for the $9.3M DPE * $3,669 below the tax * $5.8M below hard cap * 15 players under contract Barring a trade to clear money and open a roster spot, this will go unused (if granted).

More on Blake Griffin Injury

Publicly, confidence is expressed that Griffin can turn it around. Griffin didn’t blame his left knee, which has undergone multiple repairs. Have the many missed games affected his rhythm? “It doesn’t help, but like I said, I’ve never really been an excuse guy, so just got to do better. “That’s the bottom line.”
Rod Beard: Good news for #Pistons: Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose are not listed AT ALL on the injury report for Friday at #Hornets. Tony Snell (left hip flexor strain) is listed as probable. Reggie Jackson and Khyri Thomas are OUT and Sekou Doumbouya and Jordan Bone are with @grdrive.
Rod Beard: #Pistons Blake Griffin and Tim Frazier and Bruce Brown (right knee contusion) are listed as probable vs. #Timberwolves on the injury report. Derrick Rose is questionable and Khyri Thomas (right foot stress reaction) is OUT. #DFS
Rod Beard: #Pistons Blake Griffin on ramping up after his return Monday: "I’m going to be forced to be eased into it, so I will ease into it. I don’t really know what to expect; I’m going into it with an open mind. I don’t know that I’ve ever been on this type of restriction before."
Griffin has missed the start of this season as he rehabs hamstring and knee soreness, but he has no regrets over playing through his injury in the playoffs. which was followed by offseason surgery. “I would do it over again, especially in the playoffs, for sure,” Griffin told The Athletic. “If I can play, I can play. It didn’t do any more damage, (the meniscus) got taken care of, and I feel great now.” Griffin’s season debut appears to be getting close. “I feel great and I’m ready to go whenever they give me the green light,” he said.
“I’m close, very close,” Griffin told The Athletic. “The training staff tells me it’s one day at a time. They tell me what I’m doing the next day, and that’s it, because they know I’d go crazy if I have a timetable. “The team has a plan and I trust our training staff. They know what they’re doing so I’m going to listen to them.”
Rod Beard: #Pistons Blake Griffin on his pending return from injury: "It’s about trusting our (training) staff, these people who have literally dedicated their lives to putting us in the best possible position."

https://twitter.com/detnewsRodBeard/status/1188517264452132867
Griffin played the first two preseason games and then sat out the third for what was called a planned rest. He missed the final two preseason games with what the team identified as hamstring soreness. Tuesday’s announcement, which said Griffin will be re-evaluated in the first week of November, said he was experiencing left hamstring soreness and posterior knee soreness. That’s the same leg that idled Griffin last spring. “We’re being very conservative with him,” Casey said. “We’re used to playing without Blake, so everyone has to be ready. That’s one reason why we went out and signed Markieff. That’s one reason why we kept Christian Wood. Thon’s (Maker) available. We’d rather have Blake, but we’re used to life without him.”
The Detroit Pistons will be without Blake Griffin until at least early November due to continued soreness in his knee and hamstring. Griffin did not travel to Indiana for Detroit's season opener against the Pacers on Wednesday, with the team saying he will continue treatment and conditioning "for left hamstring and posterior knee soreness."
The Pistons announced in April that Griffin underwent a successful arthroscopic procedure on his left knee, and he’s not expected to miss any planned offseason training. “Blake played fantastic,” Drummond said. “He’s going to take care of his body this summer and come back at 100%. You got to take your hat off to a guy who fights through pain. It’s not fun playing with a knee injury.”
James Edwards III: #Pistons' Blake Griffin underwent a successful arthroscopic procedure today, the team announced. He's not expected to miss any planned offseason training.
David Aldridge: No shock: Pistons announce that Blake Griffin had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in L.A. Team says Griffin is not expected to miss "any planned offseason training or preparation" for next season.
Rod Beard: #Pistons Blake Griffin on plan for his knee: "I’ll address that today and tomorrow and have a game plan going from there. It will be something, yes. "don’t think it’ll interfere with any offseason workout plans that I have. We’ll figure that out."
James Edwards III: #Pistons' Blake Griffin is starting. Bruce Brown is back with the starters, too.
James Edwards III: Despite being listed as probable, Dwane Casey said Blake Griffin is still a game-time decision.
Malika Andrews: Blake Griffin is listed as probable for Game 4 between the Bucks and Pistons.
Rod Beard: #Pistons Blake Griffin is listed as a starter for Game 3, along with Jackson, Ellington, Kennard and Drummond.
Griffin missed the first two games of the first round series between the Milwaukee Bucks and Detroit Pistons with knee soreness. He also sat the final game of Detroit's regular season. Thon Maker had been starting in Griffin's place.
Detroit Pistons star Blake Griffin will likely miss the entire first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks because of a left knee injury, sources told Yahoo Sports. Griffin has battled the injury for the past several weeks, getting pulled from the Pistons' second-to-last game against Memphis and missing the season finale against New York, games the Pistons needed to win — and did — to qualify for the last playoff spot.
Griffin will be listed as day to day for the remainder of the series, with a league source calling it a "slim chance" he plays this weekend. There's no structural damage in the left knee, and it's unclear whether he'll need some type of minor procedure this offseason. Griffin and team doctors will decide the best course of action when the season concludes.
Malika Andrews: Thon Maker starts for the Pistons in place of Blake Griffin. Griffin has been undergoing ongoing treatment to try to control the inflammation in his knee, league sources told ESPN.
Detroit Pistons star forward Blake Griffin is still day-to-day heading into the postseason, coach Dwane Casey said Friday. Griffin, who has been dealing with a troublesome left knee, did not play in the regular-season finale Wednesday when Detroit wrapped up a playoff spot by winning at New York.
James Edwards III: Dwane Casey on Blake Griffin: “I don’t think he’s going to go tonight.”
James Edwards III: Blake: “I couldn’t help us tonight.” He said he’ll take it day-by-day, meet with doctors and together everyone will decide on if he can go tomorrow.
Rod Beard: #Pistons Blake Griffin (left knee soreness) is listed as questionable on the preliminary injury report for Tuesday vs. Memphis. #Grizzlies Mike Conley, Jaren Jackson Jr., C.J. Miles, Joakim Noah, Jonas Valanciunas, Dillon Brooks, Avery Bradley and Kyle Anderson all are OUT. #DFS
James Edwards III: Casey on Blake: "He's not 100 percent, no. He's giving us all he's got."
Rod Beard: In preliminary injury report for Friday vs. #Thunder, #Pistons list Blake Griffin (left knee soreness) as questionable. Luke Kennard (right foot soreness) is probable. Here's a new one: Svi Mykhailiuk (left index finger fracture) is OUT.
Storyline: Blake Griffin Injury
More HoopsHype Rumors
March 22, 2023 | 9:21 pm EDT Update
Walt “Clyde” Frazier said he’d been “meandering” all day on Wednesday, one day after the loss of his longtime friend, captain and championship teammate, Willis Reed. “It took me so long to get dressed today,” the famously fashionable Frazier said softly before working Wednesday’s game between the Knicks and the Heat as the longtime analyst for MSG Networks. “It’s been devastating. After seeing him on the video for the 50th anniversary, I didn’t know he was that far gone. Everybody was really surprised.”
March 22, 2023 | 8:24 pm EDT Update

Mike Brown on Domantas Sabonis: He's as close to Draymond Green as a big man

Sabonis leads the NBA in rebounding and is dishing a career-high 7 assists per game. Every teammate — even Fox — knows to run the wings when Sabonis grabs a defensive board. “He is as close to Draymond Green as any big man I’ve seen in terms of someone who can get it off the glass, bring it up, and make the right play,” says Brown, who coached Green as an assistant in Golden State for six seasons.
During Sabonis’ rookie year in Oklahoma City, Russell Westbrook invited Sabonis to early-morning workouts to go through the nuances of pick-and-roll, says Billy Donovan, who coached that Thunder team. They drilled how to read a defender’s feet, when Sabonis could slip screens, how Sabonis could make himself available for pocket passes. (One of Sabonis’ rookie duties was supplying Westbrook with Snapple for team flights, Sabonis and others on that team recall.) Sabonis was astonished that Fox ceded so much ball handling to him right away, including letting Sabonis rush the ball up after rebounds. “I was really surprised,” Sabonis says. “He has been with the Kings forever. This is his team. He really let me do my thing. Not many franchise point guards would let their big man bring the ball up. He ran with me. He set screens for me. That’s what shocked me most. That’s what made the transition so easy. Neither of us care who is who. We just want to win.”
Sabonis suffered an avulsion fracture in his right thumb and ligament damage in his hand. Fixing it required surgery that would cost between six and eight weeks. The Kings were 17-14, sixth in the West, only a couple games ahead of No. 11. Sabonis wanted to keep playing. “In my mind, sitting out was not an option,” he says. “Six to eight weeks — we can’t risk that.” He asked the team’s medical staff to wait to see if the swelling would subside. It did — enough. He joked that he didn’t use his right hand anyway. After consulting with doctors, trainers, and Sabonis’ agents, the decision was made: He’d play on. The training staff nicknamed him “Wolverine” for his apparent imperviousness to pain.
In the weeks before the trade, Thunder officials had talked to Sabonis about playing him more at center — the position he preferred. He pictured himself in Oklahoma City long-term. As free agency approached, Sabonis heard rumors the Thunder might sign Blake Griffin and worried he could end up traded as a result. When news broke that the Clippers had re-signed Griffin, Sabonis was relieved and went to bed to rest up for his summer league game the next day. Minutes later, Thunder officials called to tell him he had been traded. “I was in shock,” he says. “Like, are you joking? I was not so happy.”