Rivers: Clippers won’t trade Griffin

But the Clippers would take a step back on defense and they’d lose Griffin’s secondary playmaking next to Paul.

The forward has been the subject of numerous rumors with the NBA’s trade deadline approaching Thursday.

Aside from names like the Houston Rockets’ Dwight Howard, Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kevin Love, Detroit Pistons’ Brandon Jennings, and the Atlanta Hawks’ Jeff Teague and Al Horford, Griffin is one to be in the trade rumor mill recently.

While the star power of Griffin is enticing, the Nuggets would be sending away four of their top six scorers in that deal. Isola also believes a Griffin-for-Carmelo Anthony trade would make sense, but not until summer. Dan Woike of the Orange County Register reports similar news as according to his source, the Clippers are adamant about not trading Griffin. “So we’ll let them do that”, Rivers said.

Instead, Griffin used Tuesday to pause his physical therapy long enough to begin the process of rehabilitating the other thing he damaged last month when he repeatedly punched assistant equipment manager Matias Testi.

Since then the Clippers are 18-5 while Griffin has sat out, first with a torn tendon in his left quad and then the broken right hand from the fight with a team employee that got Griffin suspended for four games once he is able to play again.

The incident drew the ire of team owner and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. That suspension will go into effect once Griffin is healthy.

“There needs to be consequences”.

But he knows he can’t, and now that he has his punishment, he said he’s trying to move forward and do the best he can from here on out. He certainly has been remorseful, which is great, and we’ll find a way to move past it. That’s part of life.

Rather than worry about that, Griffin’s primary focus is on rehabbing to get back on the court as soon as possible. However, the Los Angeles Clippers aren’t serious about trading him unless the return is huge. During their run, the National Basketball Association team has improved its defensive efficiency, leading the Doc Rivers to feel pretty good about where his team stands heading into the final portion of the season.

“We receive phone calls about every single player, honestly, but it does frustrate me when you hear all that speculation and all that stuff”, Rivers said.