The Boston Celtics are signing Blake Griffin to a one-year veteran minimum deal. According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the Celtics are giving him a fully guaranteed contract for the season.
Karalis' take:
I'll start with the mantra in situations like this: Veteran minimum deals are generally fine no matter what. The expense with this, even with the tax, is tolerable because the league reimburses the team for a portion of the deal.
Griffin has name recognition but he's obviously at the end of his career. He's 33, but the athleticism that fueled his LA Clippers stardom is long gone. However, he's capable of making plays here and there, as we saw against the Celtics in the playoffs when he and Jaylen Brown spent a few minutes matching each other shot-for-shot.
Those moments are fleeting, though. Griffin should get a chance to compete for minutes in the frontcourt off the Celtics bench, giving the Celtics some insurance against injury and the Luke Kornet plan falling apart. Griffin himself shouldn't be counted on to stay healthy all season either, but he'll probably have a game here or there where he shows flashes of his old self.
There weren't a lot of places for the Celtics to go to provide depth with a known entity. I don't expect much of anything from Griffin besides the flashes, but the signing is fine for a guy competing for an end-of-rotation role. Maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised, but the hope of that generally lies in the name recognition rather than recent performances.
