Pistons: When is it time to worry about Jerami Grant?

1. Whether he likes it or not, Jerami Grant can’t do it all by himself

Jerami Grant came to Detroit with the hopes of being the number one option on offense, but not the only option. There’s a wide chasm between the team he joined in free agency and this Pistons team as it exists now, even if moving off of Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose was the plan all along (and it was).

Grant may have been surrounded by inferior NBA players to start the season on his new team, but at least Rose and Griffin were savvy vets who could demand some attention from defenses. Their respective presences may not have helped the Pistons win games, but at least they provided Grant some theoretical help.

Blake Griffin may not be able to back you down in the post on a regular basis anymore, but you at least have to keep an eye on him because nobody wanted to be on his first dunk clip in almost two years in a Piston uniform. Derrick Rose isn’t the Derrick Rose of old, but NBA defenders often treat him as though he is. The Pistons don’t have any such pressure valve on their roster to get attention off Jerami Grant with the two of them gone.

To illustrate this point, Grant had a true shooting percentage of 53.6 on the season when playing without Griffin and Rose. Conversely, with Griffin on the floor, it was 57.1 percent. With Rose, 55.8.

These are small margins, but they’re important and it shows that Grant does indeed need more help to be productive. There’s no shame in that, and it would be tough for anybody to keep up his early production with a roster full of rookies, two-way players and the assortment of veterans the Pistons have today.