Jerami Grant has reportedly agreed to a 3-year, $27 million contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Let’s give the Thunder a grade for this deal.
Per ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Oklahoma City Thunder are signing forward Jerami Grant to a three-year, $27 million deal. The question is, how does this work with the future of the Thunder moving forward?
Jerami Grant is a solid basketball player. He can rebound, rim-run and defend multiple positions. During the 2017-18 season, Grant averaged 8.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game on a career-high 53.5 percent shooting from the field.
Grant provided valuable production in an extremely limited role. He only played 20.3 minutes per game, but I would expect (and hope) that Grant’s new deal is an indication he’ll be given a larger role in the coming seasons. After all, $9 million per year is too much money for a guy getting roughly 20 minutes per game. Grant has to be on the floor more.
While the signing is a big deal for OKC, it’s by no means what Thunder fans and media are focusing on. Re-signing Paul George to a four-year, $137 million max contract is obviously the big win for the franchise, but Westbrook and George can’t win by themselves. They, like every other superstar duo, need help. They need valuable role players.
The Thunder now have an impressive core consisting of Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Steven Adams. That core with role players like Jerami Grant, Andre Roberson and Alex Abrines should be able to make some serious noise in the league. Even Carmelo Anthony, at age 34, can still give them something of value — as long as he’s willing to take on a new role.
Carmelo Anthony should no longer be a starter in this league, especially on a team like the Thunder. If I’m Billy Donovan, I promote Jerami Grant from the bench to the starting lineup and move Melo down to the bench.
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This isn’t as much a knock on Melo as it is Grant being able provide the Thunder with a better option in their starting five. He will demand fewer shots than Melo (fully allowing PG-13 and Russ to be themselves) and can be an off-ball rim runner or pick-and-roll guy.
Despite his awful 3-point shooting percentage last season (29.1 percent), he’s still a capable shooter. That percentage isn’t necessarily a good indication of the ability he has to stretch the floor. In 2016-17, he shot a nice 37.7 percent from deep. I think that number is a much better indicator of where he can be going forward.
Grant is a far better defender and rebounder than Melo and who knows? Maybe if Anthony is playing with the second unit, he can go back to being that prolific scorer we all know and love. It’s just tough for him to fit in next to George and Westbrook in the starting lineup.
The downside to all of these expensive signings for the Thunder is that they’re likely to set an NBA record with their tax bill. But hey, I’m not an NBA owner – it’s not for me to decide how much money they should spend in luxury tax … even if it is a historic amount.
Salary wise, I don’t love the Grant signing (even though the Melo contract is the real problem), but basketball-wise, I absolutely love the Grant signing.
Next: 2018 NBA free agency tracker: Grades for every deal so far
Grade: B