OKC Thunder Series Matchup: The x-factors – Jerami Grant vs. Al-Farouq Aminu

Jerami Grant versus Al-Farouq Aminu is one of the more interesting battles in the series between the OKC Thunder and Portland Trail Blazers – and perhaps one of the more important.

The matchup between Jerami Grant and Al-Farouq Aminu is one of the most interesting on the fringes of the Portland Trail Blazers versus Oklahoma City Thunder playoff series. In broad strokes, they’re both pretty similar players; wildly versatile wings who have a strange tendency to pull out ball-handling moves out of nowhere. But in the context of their teams, they have dramatically different roles.

As one of the only consistently reliable wings out in Portland, the Blazers rely on Aminu a bit more than the Thunder do with Grant. Although he’s mostly an off-the-ball player, the Blazers need him to be as productive as he possibly can to take the pressure off the backcourt, especially without Jusuf Nurkic. In that sense, his production is way more valuable to Portland.

Even with his role, it’s not really debatable at this point who the better player is. Grant, who’s developing at what seems like an exponential rate, is a significantly more complete player than Aminu. With his frame, he’s a smidge rangier on defense with the ability to hold his grown on the perimeter better than most bigs. Offensively, he’s a legitimate shooter who gives OKC some dimensionality with his rim-rolling and sporadic playmaking.