We really need to see what he has and see less Grant. Nesmith at least has an athletic base and just needs confidence, I think. You can tangibly see his effort when he comes out, he plays hard. He does make mistakes on defense. He bends way too much at the waist on D, and not enough with his knees which throws him off balance a lot. But it has to be hard to get going when you know you'll be yanked at the slightest mistake. I think his hurt Rob too, but he got to watch a lot and that can help raw guys.
I don't get it, CBS plays guys who don't produce all the time. Why not Nesmith? The returns we are getting on Grant minutes
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/n/nesmiaa01.htmlhttps://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/willigr01.htmlare not much better than Nesmith.
The floor is a lot lower on him as well as he has a 26 inch standing vertical as opposed to Nesmith's 34 inch standing vertical. 28" is the average no step vertical leap. Nesmith's max vertical was 42" whereas Grant's was about equal to Nesmith's no step vertical. Now vertical is not everything but it helps a lot in fighting for rebounds, blocking shots, getting your shot off in the post. For reference Rob max vertical is 44".
Smart players can over come a low vertical but Grant who is sharp as a tack has not done well in this regard. He needs to embrace contact a little more and bang for those rebounds. Nesmith is surprising athletic. The question is can he get his head on straight and capitalize on that athletic potential.