Detroit Pistons: Jerami Grant’s All-Star case is a tough one

Jerami Grant of the Detroit Pistons will not be starting the All-Star game, which is not a surprise, as the East is loaded with worthy choices.

Grant is having a breakout season, but he is on the worst team in the Eastern Conference and fans and media generally reward the players who are on good teams.

Grant is not yet a household name and fans usually vote for the guys they know and like, even if they don’t really deserve to be there.

But Grant still has a chance to make the team, as the reserves are chosen by coaches, who are sometimes (not always) more fair than the fans and media and know first-hand how good some of these players are because they have to gameplan against them.

Detroit Pistons: Will Jerami Grant be chosen as an All-Star reserve?

The coaches will choose three more front court players for the Eastern Conference team, but it will still be a hard road for Jerami Grant, as the guys ahead of him are having excellent seasons themselves.

Grant currently has five front court players ahead of him in overall voting, and Jayson Tatum is a 100 percent lock to make the team.

I’d say the same of Jimmy Butler, who is having another fantastic season even though Miami has not had a good season.

That leaves one front court reserve spot with Grant and three other worthy candidates battling it out.

How does Grant stack up against the other three?

Detroit Pistons: Will Jerami Grant make the All-Star team?

The three front court players who are battling it out with Jerami Grant for that final spot are all having good seasons and all have a strong argument to be chosen.

Julius Randle, Domantas Sabonis and Bam Adebayo are all putting up big numbers on teams that are better than Detroit, so if you care about team success, Grant doesn’t really have an argument.

Of the four players, Grant is the scoring leader, getting 23.8 per game to Randle’s 23.2, Sabonis’ 21.5 and Adebayo’s 19.9 points per game.

But scoring isn’t everything and Grant is behind in just about every other category. Randle, Sabonis and Adebayo all pull down considerably more rebounds than Grant, which makes sense considering Grant is more of a small forward and the rest are power forward/centers who play around the rim.

Grant is also last in assists amongst this group, getting just 2.9 per game, while the other three are all over five.

Randle has the highest 3-point percentage of the group, though Grant is just behind him and takes more attempts per game.

Grant’s biggest argument is on the defensive end, as he defends multiple spots and averages the most combined blocks and steals of any of this group.

But when you factor in Detroit’s record, it’s hard to make a case that Grant should beat out any of these three, even though he is the most versatile defender of the group.

So how can Jerami Grant make the team?

Detroit Pistons: Could Jerami Grant be the Wild Card?

Both conferences also get to choose two Wild Cards which can be from any positional group.

This is Jerami Grant’s best chance to make the team, though he will still have stiff competition considering that guards will also be in the mix, including James Harden, Zach LaVine, Jaylen Brown and Trae Young, who are all having good seasons as well.

In other words, it’s unlikely that Jerami Grant is going to be chosen for the All-Star game in 2021 unless there is an injury or players choose to sit out.

That’s not the way Grant wants to make it but it’s his best shot at this point, especially in a season when a lot of players don’t even think there should be an All-Star game (we agree).

This should show people exactly how hard it is to make the All-Star team when you are on a lottery team, as Grant is having as good a season as just about anyone and will still likely come up short.

Hopefully this will just add to the chip on his shoulder and Grant will use it as motivation to continue to get better.

Fans of the Detroit Pistons will always remember Grant’s first season with the team even if he isn’t an All-Star, and he still has a chance to take home some hardware when the Most Improved Player award is announced.