Welcome back to the NBA Star Index -- a weekly gauge of the players who are most controlling the buzz around the league. Reminder: Inclusion on this list isn't necessarily a good thing. It simply means that you're capturing the NBA world's attention. Also, this is not a ranking. The players listed are in no particular order as it pertains to the buzz they're generating. This column will run every week through the end of the regular season.
Blake Griffin jumped to the top of the NBA news cycle when he was recently bought out by the Detroit Pistons and signed by the Brooklyn Nets. It sounds like a name grab. Griffin has looked like a shell of his former explosive self this season. But might Griffin have a touch more left in his tank than he showed in Detroit's dire environment? I was immediately bearish on Blake. I still largely am. But I have thought about it more, and a couple comps offer a ray of hope.
Marc Gasol looked pretty cooked last season with the Toronto Raptors, and here he is starting and playing good ball for the Los Angeles Lakers, who have the talent to work around the things Gasol can no longer do at an elite level while taking advantage of what he still can do. Griffin isn't the passer that Gasol is, but he's a good one, and it's easy to imagine that element of his game having some kind of impact as a small-ball center with all that perimeter scoring talent around him. Both Gasol and Griffin are threats as pick-and-pop 3-point shooters with far more concerning scorers occupying attention. There is success to be had below the rim.
Also think about DeMarcus Cousins with Golden State. He was nearly as big a shell of his former self as Griffin has looked this year, but he could step out and hit a few shots and be a presence on the boards, and he had a few moments on the big stage. He helped the Warriors win a Finals game by doing just enough in a pinch with what little he had left to offer.
To me, Griffin should be looking at these aging-star blueprints. His role now becomes about timely plays rather than consistent contribution. All that said, this could go one of two ways in Brooklyn: He could, even in minimal minutes, screw up the already second-nature chemistry of that offense, with really no defensive upside, and end up riding the end of the bench. Or he could be reenergized by the opportunity to once again play on the big stage, use the remainder of the regular season to get ramped up and have a few moments in the playoffs to help the Nets win even one or two games on a Finals run, which would be more than enough to make the experiment worthwhile.
It's officially NBA trade season with the March 25 deadline for players to be moved creeping up, and Lowry is the biggest name believed to be available. That doesn't mean he's going to get traded. It's perhaps more likely that he'll remain with the Raptors. The Athletic's Sam Amick reported on Wednesday there's a "strong sense" that Lowry's $30.5 million salary could ultimately inhibit a move, but that doesn't have to be true.
The 76ers, Clippers and Heat, all teams that have been linked to Lowry in recent reports, can all make the money work pretty easily if the motivation is there to get something done. Meanwhile, Lowry said this on Wednesday:
"I will retire as a Toronto Raptor ... one-day contract, hey whatever happens."
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) March 11, 2021
-Kyle Lowry pic.twitter.com/YiKlfUa4wn
If you didn't listen to the video, the key line is Lowry saying he would like to "finish this season out as strong as possible, and whatever happens, happens." It sounds as if he's saying he'd like to finish the season in Toronto. He's set to enter free agency this summer, and from there he could join a contender with no fuss. Problem is, the Raptors would lose him for nothing in that scenario.
If Toronto keeps Lowry past the deadline, it's at least in part because it would consider signing him to another multi-year deal this summer. Keeping that option open is worth the possibility of losing him for nothing. Lowry is still a borderline great player. We've seen what it looks like with Chris Paul when teams are too quick to age a player out of their plans. Almost nobody was interested in Paul's contract when he was initially traded from Houston to OKC. Now Paul is leading a Suns team with the second-best record in the league.
One way or another, Lowry will be helping some team win a lot of games for the foreseeable future.
Oladipo turned down Houston's two-year, $45.2 million extension, and he will almost certainly become an unrestricted free agent this season. The question is: Will he be traded in the meantime?
Reports have indicated interest from the Warriors, who are exploring every angle under the sun to upgrade their roster in a meaningful way -- not just for the remainder of this season, but for next season and beyond when they intend to return to championship contention -- without having to give up their two most valuable future building blocks in James Wiseman or Minnesota's 2021 top-three-protected first-round pick, which came via the D'Angelo Russell-Andrew Wiggins deal.
Oladipo hasn't looked great for the Rockets, who in turn have little bargaining leverage. If they want to play hardball, nobody bites on Oladipo and they probably lose him in the summer for nothing anyway. My guess is Oladipo ends up getting traded. Who lands him is a tougher question.
Aldridge and the San Antonio Spurs have agreed to mutually part ways.
"LaMarcus is not with the team," Gregg Popovich said in a statement. "He's healthy, in that respect, but we've mutually agreed to work out some opportunities for him and that'll be elsewhere. So, he won't be with the team moving forward. He's been a great teammate. There was no problem there. We just think this is a win-win for both LaMarcus and for the club. So, when an opportunity arises, that'll be up to management, his agent, you know, sort of thing. We'll all move forward. ... He's been a great teammate. He's done everything we've asked. And at this point, we'd just like to [do] something that will work for him as much as for our club, because he deserves that."
So far this season, Aldridge has been a massive drain on the Spurs, who are almost 10 points per 100 possessions better with him on the bench, per Cleaning the Glass. Almost all of that negative impact comes on the defensive end, and his abilities, or inabilities, on that end aren't going to suddenly change on another team. But if another team could cover for him defensively, keep in mind that the two seasons prior to this one were the two most efficient scoring seasons of Aldridge's career.
Last season, Aldridge posted a career-high 53.2 effective field goal percentage, per CTG, while shooting 40 percent from 3 on three attempts per game. This season he's at 36 percent from 3 on higher volume. He's still a midrange killer when his shot is on. For all his struggles this season, he's making 55 percent of his shots between the free throw and 3-point lines, per CTG, and 47 percent of all his midrange shots, which are both career highs.
Aldridge is a face-up, pick-and-pop big, and those things can really help a team that, again, can account for him defensively. Our Sam Quinn put together a list of five teams that could be in play for Aldridge, including the Blazers, Heat, Celtics, Lakers and Warriors.
