OKC Thunder: Revisiting Jerami Grant trade, one-year later
How is Grant doing in Denver?
It didn’t take long for Grant to sound off against the OKC Thunder upon joining his new team.
Perhaps the former Thunder forward wasn’t happy about being traded. Or, maybe he felt he was underutilized.
Playing with superstars often equates to fewer shots for ‘the others’ and Grant’s initial comments could be considered shade at his former team.
Jerami Grant on his trade from OKC to Denver: "I don’t think it was too difficult. There were some things going on in Oklahoma and they kind of got rid of a lot of different piece. For me it was almost good to get out of a sinking ship."
— Harrison Wind (@HarrisonWind) October 1, 2019
In fairness, Grant was leaving an iso-heavy offense who were ranked 23rd in assists per game to a Nuggets squad who employed ball movement and ranked second in assists.
Regardless of his motivation, it was a little surprising the Syracuse alum failed to recognize his former team and their efforts to develop him. Former assistant coach Adrian Griffin worked tirelessly with him to improve his balance, his second jump off the floor, and shooting fundamentals.
Much of Grant’s success at blocking shots, rebounding and perimeter shooting came courtesy of those hours spent in development. And, because of his improvement coach Billy Donovan rewarded him by starting him in 77 out of his 80 appearances last season.
| Season | Tm | G | GS | MP | FGA | FG% | 3PA | 3P% | 2PA | 2P% | DRB | TRB | AST | BLK | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | PHI | 65 | 11 | 21.2 | 5.4 | .352 | 2.4 | .314 | 3.0 | .383 | 2.3 | 3.0 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 6.3 |
| 2015-16 | PHI | 77 | 52 | 26.8 | 7.8 | .419 | 1.9 | .240 | 5.9 | .477 | 3.4 | 4.7 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 9.7 |
| 2016-17 | TOT | 80 | 4 | 19.1 | 4.1 | .463 | 1.5 | .371 | 2.7 | .514 | 2.1 | 2.6 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 5.5 |
| 2016-17 | PHI | 2 | 0 | 20.5 | 8.5 | .353 | 1.0 | .000 | 7.5 | .400 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 8.0 |
| 2016-17 | OKC | 78 | 4 | 19.1 | 4.0 | .469 | 1.5 | .377 | 2.5 | .523 | 2.1 | 2.6 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 5.4 |
| 2017-18 | OKC | 81 | 1 | 20.3 | 5.6 | .535 | 1.4 | .291 | 4.3 | .613 | 2.9 | 3.9 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 8.4 |
| 2018-19 | OKC | 80 | 77 | 32.7 | 10.3 | .497 | 3.7 | .392 | 6.6 | .555 | 4.0 | 5.2 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 13.6 |
| 2019-20 | DEN | 64 | 22 | 26.2 | 8.7 | .471 | 3.4 | .400 | 5.3 | .518 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 11.6 |
| Career | 447 | 167 | 24.4 | 7.0 | .463 | 2.3 | .348 | 4.6 | .521 | 2.9 | 3.9 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 9.2 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/8/2020.
No doubt he felt somewhat blindsided by being dealt, but it wasn’t just the offense he took the shot at — calling OKC ‘a sinking ship’.
In hindsight, I wonder how Grant feels after 64 games in Denver. He’s only started when veteran Paul Millsap was injured. More confusing is his regression in specific areas of his game particularly defensively. T.I. covered much of this in a previous article so I won’t reinvent the wheel — you can check it out here.
"Millsap – on court: 102.2 | off court: 110.7 | net differential: negative 8.5 Grant – on court: 111.2 | off court: 103.1 | net differential: plus 8.1 MPJ – on court: 111.1 | off court: 107.3 | net differential: plus 3.8"
When Denver traded for Grant the hope was he would become the starting power forward of the future, eventually replacing Millsap. The rise of youngster Michael Porter Jr. is making that a less obvious choice now.
MPJ has better shooting splits in every area of the court. But what made Grant’s future position less secure was his regression defensively.
Denver led the league with the best defensive rank in November but have witnessed regression throughout the season. In the month of January when Millsap missed 16 games, the Nuggets were 10-5 in the games Grant started. The concerning part was they ranked 18th defensively despite playing seven lottery clubs.