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.
Detroit Pistons: Can Jerami Grant be the number one option on a good team?
Yes! One way to look at Jerami Grant’s season is to say that he is putting up big numbers without much help.
Because the Detroit Pistons are light on scoring options, Grant is forced to carry the load and other teams know this. He is the number one thing that they have to game plan against.
With a more balance roster and better teammates, Grant should be able to become more of a playmaker and won’t have to constantly bear the burden of being the only one on the team who can get his own shot consistently.
No! We already saw what Jerami Grant can be on a good team, as he just came from the Denver Nuggets, who have been one of the best teams in the Western Conference for a long time.
Grant was the 3rd or 4th option on a team that had an MVP candidate and a star guard, so maybe his destiny is to be that guy and there is nothing wrong with that. Grant can be the best defender on a good team, he can be the team’s chemistry and glue guy and doesn’t have to be a number one scoring option to be a very good and effective player on a title contender.
We’ve seen Jerami Grant with very good teammates already and he took a back seat. A team with Jerami Grant as the 3rd option can win a title, a team with him as the first option is a lottery team.
Detroit Pistons: Can Jerami Grant make another leap as a player?
Yes! Jerami Grant is a hard worker by all accounts and a guy who Dwane Casey said “wants to be great.” Denver clearly didn’t know what they had and once the leash was taken off, Grant has thrived.
He’ll now have a full offseason to work on specific parts of his game knowing that he is now “the” guy the team is building around.
He will work on his passing, continue to improve his 3-point shooting and Grant could absolutely make the leap into the next tier of NBA stars, earn an All-Star bid and be a legit number one scoring threat for the Detroit Pistons.
No! Jerami Grant is 27-years-old. Most player are who they are by that age and aren’t going to make significant leaps. Sure, he can improve some of the nuances of his game, but Grant is more or less a finished product at this point.
He is in his prime now and most guys are most impactful between ages 24-29, right where Grant is. Of course there are the freaks like LeBron James and Chris Paul who just keep getting better, but Grant isn’t in that league and has probably made the big leap already.
I should say that none of this is meant as criticism of Jerami Grant. He has been everything the Pistons wanted and more, he wants to be in Detroit and I love the guy. I think he can be the linchpin that speeds up this rebuild, especially if the Pistons can add another elite scorer to take some of the pressure off and allow him to do all of the other things he’s very good at doing.