It’s not usually the case for a player to expand their offensive repertoire by leaps and bounds in his seventh season in the NBA. However, that’s exactly what happened to the Detroit Pistons’ Jerami Grant. The player that he’s become while he’s been in Detroit was very different than who Grant was in his prior NBA stops.
While the Pistons are currently a long way away from contention in the Eastern Conference, Grant’s presence on the team as a jack of all trades type of player should help the development of their younger players. Grant suffered a left calf strain on March 25th against the Washington Wizards, and the team announced on March 28th that he would not return for the duration of the regular season. His absence has opened up additional playing time for guys like Kelly Olynyk and Isaiah Livers.
Childhood
Houston Jerami Grant was born on March 12, 1994 to parents Harvey Grant and Beverly Grant. Jerami Grant has three brothers, Jerai, Jerian and Jaelin. Jerami and his brothers had a lot of exposure to the NBA game as children, considering that their dad Harvey, and their uncle, Horace (an Orlando Magic legend), were both NBA players. Even though Grant was born in Portland during Harvey’s three year tenure with the Portland Trail Blazers, a lot of his formative years were spent in Washington, D.C. That’s because Harvey played seven of his 11 professional seasons there, for the Bullets and Wizards.
He looked up to his father and uncle, and also to his older brothers Jerai and Jerian Grant. He ended up spending a lot of time in the Wizards’ facility, now named Capital One Arena. He cultivated relationships with most of the staff who worked at the arena, and still talks to them when he returns there as an opponent.
High School
With his athletic bloodlines in full bloom as a youngster, Jerami Grant attended basketball powerhouse DeMatha High School in Maryland. Some of his teammates during his four years there included NBA All-Star Victor Oladipo, NCAA basketball champion Quinn Cook, and many other players who would go on to star at leading Division I programs in college.
While he was always a valuable player for DeMatha, Grant never really put up eye-popping numbers. Part of that was due to the quality of players he was taking the court with, but his priority was always locked in on doing whatever it took to help the team win. His versatility on the floor was helpful to the team in big games against St. Vincent-St Mary’s and Gonzaga High School, where he posted double-doubles. For his efforts, Grant was ranked as the 37th prospect in ESPN’s prospect rankings for the 2012 class coming out of high school.
College
Jerami Grant had a style of play that would make him valuable in any program in the country. He received offers from Notre Dame, NC State and Oklahoma, where his father Harvey spent part of his college career. Grant played college basketball in Syracuse under legendary head coach Jim Boeheim.
While he appeared in 40 games for the Orange in his freshman season, Grant was sporadically sprinkled into the rotation by his coach. He only scored in double figures five times, and his best game in the NCAA tournament was against Montana in their first game where he scored five points and eight rebounds. Although Syracuse made a deep run in the Big Dance, Grant was an ancillary participant at best.
However, his sophomore campaign would be a different story. Jerami Grant started 20 out a possible 32 games, and contributed 12 points per game to go along with nearly seven rebounds a contest. That included two rebounds on the offensive end, giving his team second chance opportunities. Arguably the best game of his college career came at home against Duke, where he dropped 24 points and 12 rebounds. Unfortunately for Grant, he fouled out of the team’s second NCAA tournament game against Dayton, which is how his college career would end.
Philadelphia 76ers
Little did he know coming out of college, Jerami Grant would become part of “The Process” with the Philadelphia 76ers. He was selected by the franchise in the second round of the 2014 NBA Draft, In the first round of that same draft, Philadelphia selected franchise cornerstone Joel Embiid.
It was a difficult situation to enter to start his pro career, but Grant knew what type of professionalism it took to be an NBA player since he was a child. On a rebuilding team, he received minutes right away, which would prove to be valuable as he got his feet wet at the highest level. It wasn’t always easy, but he appeared in 142 games in his first two NBA seasons in Philadelphia, which would set the stage for the next part of his career.
Oklahoma City Thunder
Despite the 76ers’ lack of success, evaluators around the league were impressed with the package Jerami Grant was bringing to the table. Very early on in the 2016-2017 NBA season, the Oklahoma City pulled the trigger on a trade to bring Grant to town in exchange for Ersan Ilyasova and a future draft pick.
The Thunder were still picking up the pieces after Kevin Durant’s departure to the Golden State Warriors, but had a few attractive young players to pair with Russell Westbrook. Oklahoma City drafted Domantas Sabonis that season, and Grant’s former high school teammate Victor Oladipo was also getting a chance to prove himself there. Head coach Billy Donovan would always talk about how Grant’s teammates genuinely liked him, and was capable of connecting with the last player on the roster just as easily as he could with an NBA All-Star.
Oklahoma City would end up getting bounced in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs in each of Grant’s three seasons there, but his game rapidly expanded in meaningful contests. He was also sparingly on the injury report, proving durable by playing in at least 78 regular season contests each season. By his final season with the Thunder, he would average nearly 33 minutes per game, proving to be just as integral to the team as Paul George, Steven Adams, or Westbrook.
Denver Nuggets
In the 2019 offseason, the Thunder parted ways with Jerami Grant by shipping him off to the Denver Nuggets. He was entering the final year of his contract, and the Thunder were content to receive a first-round pick back from Denver.
Grant filled a valuable role for a team already loaded with offensive talent. The Nuggets needed an infusion of defensive ability to play alongside the likes of Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. The former Syracuse star would routinely match up against the other team’s best offensive player, and make him work for his shots.
During the 2020 NBA playoffs held in the bubble, Grant was a crucial piece of the Nuggets advancing all the way to the Western Conference Finals. He started off in the first round with a consecutive games with two blocks against the Utah Jazz. In addition to the intangibles he brought, Grant also connected on nearly 39 percent of his three-point attempts. In a contract year, he checked several boxes that would help get him a handsome contract.
Detroit Pistons
Before the 2020-2021 season, Jerami Grant inked a three year, $60 million contract. It was a difficult decision for him to leave the upstart Nuggets, but Grant was excited to spread his wings as a player. He knew that Detroit would give him an opportunity to flourish, and he took full advantage.
What is Jerami Grant averaging?
It was hard to see an offensive renaissance coming for a player who had already spent several seasons in the NBA, but Grant turned into a scoring machine in his first season with Detroit. He averaged over 22 points per game, and shot a career-best 84 percent from the free-throw line. Grant was on a struggling roster to be sure, but was able to consistently post strong numbers even as other teams knew he was their main threat.
NBA Future
Grant’s 2021-2022 season hasn’t been quite as impressive, but there are a couple of explainable reasons for that. He missed nearly two months of action due to a thumb injury. Additionally, the Pistons have funneled offensive responsibility to Cade Cunningham, the first overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.
Due to Cunningham’s presence, it’s unlikely that Grant’s playmaking ability will flourish to the tune of four assists per game, or something comparable. However, his skill set slides in perfectly with almost any roster construction, so it will be interesting to see what Detroit does with him this offseason. He will be entering the final season of his three year deal in 2022-2023, which will increase his viability as a trade chip. There have been massive rumors about Grant moving to Chicago Bulls, too.
How many Grant brothers are in the NBA?
Three. Two of Jerami’s brothers, Jerai and Jerian, are also professional basketball players. Jerai Grant is a professional basketball player who currently plays as a forward for the Ukrainian team BC Budivelnyk. Jerian Grant is a member of Türk Telekom in the Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL). He was one of the top college basketball players in the US during the 2014–15 season, when he was playing for the University of Notre Dame.
Are Jerian and Jerami Grant twins?
No, they are not twins, they’re regular brothers.
