Pistons aim to manage Blake Griffin’s workload better this season, but won’t make any promises

If the Detroit Pistons want to make any noise in the playoffs, they are going to need their star forward Blake Griffin’s body to be intact.

Despite a good start in 2018/19, the Pistons barely survived a collapse and essentially crawled into the post-season. As expected, they ended up getting swept by the Milwaukee Bucks in embarrassing fashion. Pistons head coach Dwane Casey hopes the situation doesn’t repeat itself again this season.

“I’ve said too many times, being from Kentucky, we rode him like a cheap horse last year,” said Casey earlier this week.

“If we didn’t, I don’t think we would have made the playoffs, because he was that special to us, but again, with addition of some other talented guys on our team, hopefully we don’t have to use him as much. I’m not going to put that in concrete, but I have to be smarter as far as the usage, because he takes a beating.”

The 30-year old is coming off one the best seasons of his career, averaging 24.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.4 assists in 75 games. However, issues with his left knee kept him out of the final six games of the regular season, and the first two playoff games.