NBA: Biggest Winners & Losers of the Blake Griffin to Detroit Deal

BOTH: DETROIT PISTONS

Detroit Pistons head coach and President of Basketball Operations - Stan Van Gundy

Short term: WINNER; Long-term: LOSER

For the next three years, the Pistons have an average close to $60 million dollars locked up in just their frontcourt (Griffin and Drummond). Given the current cap, that might not be a very big problem but eventually, they have to start signing players off of their rookie contracts and that's when this trade might come back to bite them.

Rarely or hardly ever do free agents choose Detroit as their choice so from the franchise's point of view, this was the only way to land an All-Star caliber player even if he commands an average of $34 million dollars over the next four years.

The team might certainly benefit from Griffin's infusion into the locker room. It should help them get out of their current funk where they have lost 23 of their last 35 games including the last eight. Given how popular he is, the Pistons organization might also benefit from better ticket sales in their new arena - Little Caesar's Arena, something that has been quite an issue for them since the start of the season.

These benefits, however, are only short-term gains. In the last two years' of his contract, at the age of 30 and 31, Griffin is slated to receive an average of $37 million. It's a good buy if he's healthy, which is the cause for concern. In each of the last three seasons (2017-18 included), Griffin has missed a ton of time due to injuries, sometimes needing to recover and rehab from two in a single calendar year.

With Griffin's injury-prone history and Drummond's one-sided play, Pistons might not have a long bright future ahead, given that these are their two highest paid players for the next three years at least.