Pistons: Grades for Jerami Grant’s first season as the No. 1 option

Jerami Grant’s contract with the Detroit Pistons

Jerami Grant’s three-year, $60 million deal was never an overspend for the Pistons or any other team interested in his services. The questions and debates were more a matter of why he would want the Pistons, or why they, a team at least several years away from competing for anything of note, would seek him out in the first place.

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It turns out that it all made more sense than met the eye initially. The Pistons were able to jump the whole process a rebuilding team must undergo where they get bad and then incrementally good, and then hope to get an established top-level vet on board with the final stage. Grant is that vet, and he’s young enough that when the Pistons are ready to try and leap into true competitiveness, he’ll still be that cornerstone.

For the Philadelphia 76ers, the veterans they pursued were players like J.J. Redick and Amir Johnson. The Pistons are a mile ahead of the game, at least in this respect.

So while Jerami Grant missed some games down the stretch (ostensibly for injury-related purposes, but those games also conveniently dovetailed with a final run where they badly needed losses), and he swooned over the second half of the season, he’s absolutely been one of the year’s biggest success stories.

Grade: B+