Blake Griffin proved he’s a perfect fit with the Pistons in his debut

Blake Griffin was put in a difficult situation in his Pistons debut, but it ended as well as anyone could’ve wanted. Despite only having one shootaround to build a rapport with his teammates, Detroit eked out a 104-102 win over the Grizzlies, and not only did Griffin play well, he dominated.

And he even got a Gatorade bath for it.

It was well deserved, too. Griffin finished the game with 24 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, and two blocks. No one could have asked for more from him.

It’s only one game. There is still a lot more basketball to be played, and there will certainly be ups and downs in this relationship, but Griffin’s debut should inspire confidence in Pistons fans — even if there may be some drawbacks down the line.

Stan Van Gundy wants a playmaking, stretchy frontcourt partner to go with his explosive center. It’s been that way since his time with the Orlando Magic when Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu were running humongous pick and rolls together.

They tried to find that in Josh Smith, and it didn’t work out. They tried it with Ersan Ilyasova, and there was still something missing. Tobias Harris was the closest they got, but he was never a true playmaker.

Griffin is all that and more. He’s got the exact combination of power, size, and skill to be the ultimate frontcourt partner for Andre Drummond in Van Gundy’s system. No point guard? No problem. Griffin can run the break for you.

He can run those same gigantic pick and rolls Turkoglu and Howard ran back in the day with Drummond. He might already be the best lob passer on the Pistons — no disrespect to Ish Smith.

And if you stick too much size on him to negate his passing lane, he can drive by your bigger defender and finish through contact.

Griffin is a weapon at any time offensively when he has the ball in his hands. He can get to the rim at any time against bigger defenders and punish smaller ones with his size and finishing ability.

OK, I know what you’re saying. It’s 2018 — so what about the shooting? Well, Griffin actually shoots 34 percent from deep and made a three against the Grizzlies. Sag off him if you want, but he can make you pay.

Despite all the positives he brings, the move to acquire Griffin is still a double-edged sword. We saw some of those drawbacks manifest themselves against the Grizzlies. Griffin finished the night with a plus-minus of plus-23 — yet the Pistons only won by two points.

On the surface, it sounds like it just might take the Pistons time to mesh with Griffin, but he played a great game and got everyone involved. It was only when he went to the bench that things fell apart.

Anthony Tolliver, Dwight Buycks, and Luke Kennard all played heavy minutes and went minus-16, minus-9 and minus-13, respectively. Langston Galloway also only played three minutes but was a minus-9. They even played poorly despite Van Gundy staggering minutes between Griffin and Drummond.

This roster has always been incredibly thin on talent, and that hasn’t changed with Griffin’s acquisition. The Pistons were able to avoid disaster with a win tonight because they regained leads every time Griffin touched the floor, but that won’t be the case every night.

The answer might be to give Griffin more minutes — he played 35 tonight. But even if they do that, they elevate his risk for injury, and he hasn’t been able to stay healthy for most of his career. It will be a while before the Pistons find a solution here.

He was a perfect fit with the team and filled every need they had. Playmaking? Check. He ran point more than a few times Thursday. Free-throw shooting? Check. The Pistons were notoriously bad at getting to the free-throw line as a team — they rank 29th in free-throw rate. Griffin got to the line 13 times against Memphis and hit 11 of his attempts.

He’s a true star player the Pistons can build an offense around. It’s something they haven’t had in years and weren’t going to get anytime soon outside of a trade. Players don’t come to Detroit unless there is other attractive talent there, and Drummond wasn’t doing it.

It might come back to bite them at some point this season, but Griffin is going to make the Pistons better for years to come. The hard part of acquiring him is done — now all that’s left to do is build a roster around their new core. This is going to be fun.