Blake Griffin gave back $13.3MM in his buyout with the Pistons, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
The buyout agreement was officially announced Friday afternoon by the team and the former All-Star forward has been placed on waivers. He’s expected to clear waivers on Sunday and the Nets have emerged as the frontrunner to sign him, Charania adds.
Griffin hasn’t played since February 12 by mutual agreement with the front office. GM Troy Weaver found it impossible to deal Griffin due to the guaranteed money remaining on his contract. The Pistons took a $36.8MM cap hit this season with Griffin possessing a $38.96MM option for next season, the final year of his contract.
Out of that $13.3MM giveback, $4.3MM will be applied to the Pistons’ cap this season and $8.7MM will be applied to next season’s cap, Vince Goodwill of Yahoo Sports tweets.
According to The Athletic’s James Edwards III (Twitter link), the Pistons have chosen not utilize the stretch provision for the money owed Griffin. They’d rather take the cap hit next season than hamper their future cap flexibility.
Weaver has already used the five-year stretch provision on offseason acquisition Dewayne Dedmon and a three-year provision on Zhaire Smith.