5. Blake Griffin has never been a good defensive player
For years, Griffin was known as either the best or second-best player on those Lob City Clippers teams from several years ago. You could pencil him in for over 20 points a game each season, and as we all know, he was one of the most exciting players in the league thanks to all his ferocious dunks.
But like plenty of All-Stars (and honestly, plenty of players in general), Griffin has never really been that good of a defensive player.
One may argue that, for a little while several years ago, he was a decent defensive player. I don’t like advanced stats, but if you want to point to his positive defensive BPM numbers from back then, fine.
So far this season, his defensive BPM is -1.1. Last season it was even worse at -2.6. Not good at all.
The Lakers’ biggest need from another center or big man is defense, especially interior defense, and Griffin was not the man to provide that.