OKC Thunder Lightning Report: Jerami Grant’s breakout season

Finishing

With all that said, he has some pretty glaring holes in his offense that seriously limit just how good he can be on that end. The most worrying of which is his finishing around the rim which isn’t nearly as good as his 65.7 percent mark in that area suggests.

Even though he is one of the most athletic bigs in the league and theoretically has the tools to score around anyone in the paint, he’s an iffy finisher who has a whole heap of problems going up in traffic.

The thing that really jumps out is the way he tends to avoid contact at all costs and ends up putting himself in some ridiculously tricky positions. He routinely leaves points at the rim by forcing shots like this one where he jumps around multiple defenders in an attempt to dodge contact and has to settle for a rough look.

Even when he’s not trying to avoid contact, he’ll take unnecessarily difficult shots that he has neither the touch nor the Giannis Antetokuonmpo-like length to hit:

Because of his sheer length and athleticism alone, there’s no way he should only be an average finisher and given the fact that over 44 percent of his shots came within five feet of the bucket, his .269 free throw rate – the ratio of free throw attempts to field goal attempts – is way too low.

The fact that he still hasn’t really been able to figure this problem out is a big part of the reason why he’s not as good in the pick-and-roll as he should be and why he’s still not a reliable option on a nightly basis.