I just don't get the hate towards Grant. He is world's better at shooting the three this year. His scoring has been very efficient. And he does guard PFs at a good level and can at least credibly switch onto a lot of SFs and some centers.
He started the year defensively completely lost and appeared a step slower and a tiny bit rounder. But he has worked through that.
He has a high BBIQ and is more than fine as a 9th to 11th man in the rotation. Like everyone on the bench, he has to get consistent. And lest we forget, he only turned 22 in December. Give him time. I see a future, extremely solid and productive bench guy, especially if that 3 point shot is always over 40%.
I think there's 2 camps on Grant.
1. there are those that don't like him (hate him) because he doesn't meet their criteria for the type of player they think Danny should have drafted regardless of who was actually available at that point. The "he's too short/too heavy/unathletic/too slow/etc..." group. Nothing short of him becoming the next Paul Milsap will mollify them.
2. there's the rest (myself included) who don't dislike/hate him but are disappointed in his play so far this year considering how well he was playing for us last season and in the playoffs. it's not like there was a lot of downtime between seasons to the severe regression in his game is just inexplicable. if he at least played at the level he was at last season, we'd probably have 2-3 more wins and we'd be feeling a lot better about the front court rotation on the team. Semi's been adequate at times but he's only going to provide so much. Grant looked like a similar player but with much better offensive skills.
Grant's defense has definitely taken a step backwards this season, but so has everyone else's defense in that Celtic locker room, including Brown and Smart.
Stevens mentioned that the short turnaround between seasons has appeared to have affected the players on the team more so than the condensed schedule. That could be the issue here, as, at least by my eye test, his defense over the last couple weeks has seemed to improve greatly.
And yes his defense hasn't been what it was but there is no denying his offense has been much better. His FG% went from 41.2% to 47%. His 3PT% went from 25% to 43.3%. His TS% went from 50.5% to 58.3%. And his Per36 PPG went from 8.2 points to 10.6 points.
Regarding if Grant's defense would have meant 2-3 more wins, I just don't see the drop in his offense, that is offset by the jump in his offense, being the cause for 2-3 more losses this year. Injuries, Covid, condensed schedule, no practices. Those things as a collective might be responsible for 2-3 of our losses, but not Grant's play alone. He just isn't that important.