For The Low Price of 2-44 You Don’t Have To Watch The Second Round
The Houston Rockets have traded the 44th pick of the 2024 NBA Draft to the Atlanta Hawks for wing AJ Griffin.
Griffin, a SG/SF out of Duke, was known in the 2022 NBA draft as a shooter, and the Rockets purportedly had a high draft grade on him as a pure shooter with good size at 6’6” 220lbs, but without a lot of other secondary attributes.
The son of former NBA player and Milwaukee Bucks head coach Adrian Griffin, Griffin was a young, but high level recruit out of high school, but with some serious health concerns. Griffin, when he did play for Duke, scorched the nets.
His bad knees, and worries about them, lead to him falling to 16th in the NBA draft, despite possibly being the best pure shooter, with good size, in his class.
The health concerns seemed perhaps overstated his first NBA season when he played in 72 games for the Hawks and started 20. In that season he shot 39% from three point range on 3.6 attempts per game as an 18 year old. He seemed to at least fulfill the “three” part of “three and D wing”.
His sophomore season really defines Sophomore Slump as he hardly played, and perhaps didn’t get along well with new coach Quinn Snyder.
In the 2023-24 season Griffin only appeared in 20 games, and shot only 26% from three before taking the rest of the season away from the team for “personal reasons”. He played fairly frequently in November, sporadically in December and January and not at all post Janauary of 2024.
What’s the story on Griffin? Is he over his injuries? Did he have a personal crisis?
In any case, the Hawks chose to cut bait on the not yet 20 year old, though perhaps largely for salary and roster reasons?
With one year left before his rookie 4th year option, Griffin seems like a good reclamation project for the low cost of a middling second round pick, now that second rounders are the pocket change of the NBA.
Will a change of scene, a new coach, and a new home help AJ Griffin? It remains to be seen. Perhaps the missing ingredient is only health, and he will find it in Houston?