28. Jerami Grant, Oklahoma City Thunder
With Carmelo Anthony gone and Patrick Patterson‘s 2017-18 struggles still fresh in everyone’s minds, Jerami Grant feels like the frontrunner to start at power forward for the Oklahoma City Thunder. After re-signing him to a three-year, $27 million deal, the front office might agree on that front.
Last year, Grant was OKC’s primary scorer off the bench by default, averaging 8.4 points per game on 53.5 percent shooting. He’s a great cutter off the ball, a tenacious defender and an active shot-blocker, and at 24 years old, he could be ready to assert himself as a starting-caliber player.
However, he can’t really spread the floor as a career 30.1 percent 3-point shooter, which would make him the second cutter/non-shooter in the starting lineup alongside Andre Roberson. Russell Westbrook and Steven Adams aren’t 3-point marksmen either, so it’s worth asking whether the Thunder could field a respectable offense with so many non-shooters on the floor at once.