By any measure, Jerami Grant‘s first season with the Detroit Pistons has been a huge success.
He has evolved from a role player for the Denver Nuggets into a star for the Detroit Pistons, a guy who leads them in scoring and has been their number one option all season.
Troy Weaver has to be given credit for recognizing that Grant was an undervalued talent and offering him a deal that some in the media scoffed at when it happened.
Jerami Grant has since put together a season that will get him some votes for Most Improved Player and if he were on a better team that award would almost certainly be a lock.
But he’s not.
The Detroit Pistons are tied for the worst record in the Eastern Conference and are staring down another offseason hoping for a top-five pick in the NBA Draft. Grant thinks that the Pistons will be doing “something big” next season and I think he is right.
The Pistons still have a lot of needs to fill this offseason, and even though Jerami Grant has been excellent, there are questions about whether he can be “the” guy moving forward.
Let’s try to answer them.
Detroit Pistons: Is Jerami Grant a number one option?
Yes! Jerami Grant is 22nd in the NBA in scoring and just about every guy ahead of him on the list is considered the number one scoring option on their respective team.
He also plays forward, arguably the most important position in the modern NBA, and is 4th among small forwards in scoring, though he often plays at power forward as well.
No! Jerami Grant may be the number one scoring option on the Pistons but they are in last place, so it’s not a ringing endorsement. There are a lot of ways to look at this (more in a second) but the bottom line is that having Grant as the number one option has equated to just 19 wins.