I wonder how good Jerami Grant is.
He popped off last season and took everyone by surprise by how much he was able to score after years of being a defensive minded role player. But how good is that scoring?
Between this year and last, Jerami Grant has played 78 games and scored 21ppg in 33mpg. He has shot only 42.5% from the field, 34% from 3 (6 attempts per night) with a strong 85% on 6 FTAs per game (vs 16.8 FGAs). Good FT numbers. Mediocre 3s and subpar FG%.
His TS% was 55.5% last year relative to a league average of 57.2%. This year his TS% is 54% relative to a league average of 55.5%. Below average both years. Not good.
Over his final two years prior to moving to Detroit, Jerami Grant played for OKC and DEN. He averaged 13ppg in 30mpg. He took only 9.6 FGAs per game and only 2.8 FTAs per game. He had FG% of 49%, a 3pt% of 39% with a mediocre 73% FT% which he has clearly improved on since then. He had TS% of 59%. Clearly a very efficient scoring role player -- but on far fewer attempts.
Since moving to a bigger role, Jerami Grant has been incapable of maintaining his scoring efficiency. Yes he is putting up points but not efficiently and it is showing in his team's W-L record. Detroit is only 5-24 this season. They were 20-52 last season for last place in the East. Yeah, the team around him sucks but you'd like to see a team with a genuine all-star caliber player performing better than this.
I genuinely wonder whether his team's W-L record would be any worse with Marcus Smart swapping places for him. I wonder if their W-L would even be better.
To add to the mediocre scoring numbers (volume without efficiency), Jerami Grant averages just under 5rpg despite being a very athletic 6-8 forward. These are very poor numbers for a guy with his physical gifts and well below average for a starting PF.
The assist numbers are poor. The guy takes 16.8 FGAs and 6.3 FTAs over his two years in Detroit yet he averages only 2.7apg. This is against 2.1 TOs per game also. So his assists ratio to possessions used is terrible. It is iso-ball. More iso-ball to go along with Jaylen's iso-ball and Tatum's iso-ball.
Just how good is Jerami Grant?
Is he an empty stats star?
Is he just a role player on a good team?
Is he only putting up big scoring numbers because he is on a team that sucks?
Why can't he move the needle in the W-L column?
Are these red flags?