The Media Weighs In on Trading Blake

With the Clippers eliminated from the post-season, the inevitable flurry of media reaction has come in. With a lot of focus on the Clippers' lack of deep playoff runs, despite its consistent regular season success over the last four years, the talk of trading Blake Griffin has come back.  With many teams now in off-season mode, it is also unlikely that this talk will go away.

Granted, some point to the impracticality of trading Blake Griffin. The impending opt-out by Blake Griffin is a big factor. And

should the Thunder lose star Kevin Durant, they're expected to make a strong push for Griffin, an Oklahoma City native. Any trade for Griffin, then, will give his new franchise a one-year trial period before it could lose Griffin altogether.

Blake's playoff injury also doesn't help. If the Doc Rivers wasn't finding common ground with other teams' general managers before Blake got hurt (again), it's unlikely he'll find common ground this off-season.

But perhaps the trade talk is hogwash to start with because the Clippers' core doesn't need tinkering.

Yes, Steve Balmer's club has failed to meet lofty expectations. However, the same is true about OKC, yet intelligent fans dismissed the 'break up Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook' idiocy that was a real talking point for a time. We collectively agreed that while issues definitely exist/existed with the Thunder they aren't/weren't rooted all the way to the core.

In the end, it'll be an interesting upcoming summer full of rumors, speculation, and opinions.