Despite Jerami Grant being slated to miss extended time with torn ligaments in his right thumb, there is a robust trade market for the Detroit Pistons wing, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Charania reported that the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers are “among the teams pursuing the Pistons’ versatile forward” and Detroit “is open to a possible deal.”
Riding out the second of a three-year, $60 million deal, Grant is eligible for a four-year extension “worth up to $112 million” this offseason. Last year, Grant averaged a career-high 22.3 points and has followed that up with 20.1 points per game through 24 games in 2021-22. He’s developed himself into a talented isolation scorer who can also spot up from deep (37 percent since 2018-19).
However, Grant is likely not a good enough playmaker or individual scorer to occupy the prominent creator role on a new team that he’s often tasked with in Detroit. Any club who trades for him would benefit from deploying him as a floor-spacer who provides help-side rim protection, the jobs he excelled at during his final season with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Whether he can regain his defensive form of yesteryear and adapt to an off-ball scoring gig again is unknown. But that’s his path to high-level contributions on a playoff contender, which is a vastly different role than the one he embodies for the Pistons and sought out when he chose Detroit over Denver in free agency two years ago.