JULY 9: Grant has officially signed the contract, the team tweets.
JUNE 30: Jerami Grant is re-signing with the Trail Blazers, having agreed to a five-year, $160MM contract, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Grant reportedly turned down a four-year extension worth nearly $113MM from Portland during the 2022/23 league year. According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, a primary reason the veteran forward decided to wait until free agency was to add the fifth year onto the end of the deal, significantly increasing its total value (Twitter link).
As Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype tweets, Portland projects to be $21MM below the luxury tax line when accounting for Grant’s new contract. The Blazers will still have the non-taxpayer mid-level exception (which starts at $12.4MM) and a $8.3MM trade exception at their disposal in an effort to build around star Damian Lillard, Gozlan adds.
Grant is in the middle of his prime and was one of the top free agents in the 2023 class. The 28-year-old combo forward averaged 20.5 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 2.4 APG, 0.8 SPG and 0.8 BPG on .475/.401/.813 shooting in 63 games last season (35.7 MPG).
While Grant is a talented two-way player who brings valued versatility, a five-year deal worth $32MM annually is obviously an enormous commitment — both in years and dollars — to a player who has never been an All-Star.
Grant is a developmental success story, slowly working his way up the ranks with the Sixers, Thunder and Nuggets before breaking out as a 20-point scorer with the Pistons, who traded him to Portland last summer. He entered the NBA with a poor jump shot, but has continued to improve his game year-over-year.
Grant is the third former second-round pick (39th overall in 2014) to land a nine-figure deal this summer, joining Draymond Green and Khris Middleton.
Atleast they’ve got their SF
Lol. Portland going to Portland. This dude isn’t worth half that
20 and 5. 47/40/82 shooting would disagree with you. Seems like an overlay because he doesn’t have the label of a star but he’s productive and most importantly wants to be in Portland.
It seems like an overpay because it is.
First off, he’s an overrated defender. A good one? Yes. But not the great one that he’s portrayed to be.
Second, he’s a terrible rebounder, which is part of what nullifies his defensive impact. It’s hard for teams to stomach that, especially at the 4.
Third, he’ll be turning 30 this year. If this were, say, a 3-year deal it would be one thing. But 32MM annually over 5 years is way too much, particularly in light of the new CBA.
Fourth, he’s a bit of a ball-stopper on offense and doesn’t make plays for others.
Finally, I’m not convinced that efficiency will hold up. Don’t expect him to be as bad as it was in Detroit, but I could see those numbers coming down a bit.
He put up those numbers on a team that went 33-49. If Grant is your second highest paid player your team is not making the playoffs.
He’s a 2way star.
Phillies fan. Don’t understand that ……
Two way star…STOP lol
Why act like the Knicks fan is tethered to reality, you couldn’t possibly remain a Knicks fan if you could interpret anything close to reality.
Horrific, one of the worst contracts in the NBA already
Not even close. You realize guys are getting up to $50-$60 mil not continuing that much more than Grant right?
Disagree, only special people like Cronin have these abilities in todays day and age-
Scoring wise, they may not be. But impact on winning? That’s debatable.
KP is getting 30 mill. Harden gets 36 mill. Kyrie is going to get 40 mill.
I take Grant over any of these one way clowns.
On a basketball court?
Jerami Grant is a very good role player!!! He’s a two way player that’s very efficient. Definitely caught a major bag!!!!
Emphasis on role player. He’s not worth $160MM.
Reeves is going to get $100MM. He’s the definition of a role player
Role players generally don’t start games. Grant is a starter.
Grant is an elite role player. KCP, Strus, White, Reeves, Gordon, Vincent, etc etc etc..honestly I could on and on. There’s plenty of role players that start in the NBA. Every team has 2-3 of them.
The very definition of a role player is that they have a role. A unique quality or specificity that they bring OFF THE BENCH. Grant is a starter. Only 12 forwards scored more than him last year. Stop the madness. This is the NBA where teams have to spend 90% of their cap. Everyone is getting a big bag.
That’s too much… sheesh
Sad to see what’s happened to this franchise. Can’t even laugh at such a ridiculous contract.
That’s the reality of NBA today. He would get a similar contract elsewhere. Maybe shorter. Per year (32 mil) it’s a cost of any decent player nowadays.
There are some absurd contracts being handed out today. This isn’t gonna help Portland build a winner around Dame.
Way too much wizards got kuz cheaper and he’s younger and a better player
A total of what a year and a half younger and in no way is Kuzma better. I like Kuz but Grant’s a better more efficient scorer and try as he may Kuzma will never be half the defender Grant is.
Casual fans will wanna trade him for a Crumbl cookie in 2 yrs.
Players who put up good numbers on a bad team are rarely as good as their “stats” imply
Tobias Harris 2.0
I’m glad you posted this. Good compare, probably wrong conclusion. Tobias earns $37M in 2023… Grant will earn $32M in 2028…
In 2028, journeymen with the same level of skill and experiece of Tobias will be paid ~43M. The $32M owed to Grant will seem very reasonable at that time.
Pay more now when the young guys are cheap. Later, they are going to need the room to bring in a pricey Center at that $43-$50M range.
Market value is really going up. Time for Dame to ask out
Man, I was off. Thought he’d bag 4/100. I’ll withdraw my agent application now…
Realistically that’s how much he should have been paid….but who else are Blazers going to sign
Best thing that can be said about this deal is that it’s not a suprise. If only because POR’s FO spent the entire season creating leverage for Grant regarding his extension. He turned down 29 mm/yr for 4 years mid-year. So, 32 mm/yr for 5 years wasn’t a surprise, to me anyway.
As a player, I love the skills he brings. He’s more than a good defender, he can be a special one. It stems from his freakish length and unusual lateral quickness. Problem 1 is he’s NOT a 3, as much as he wants to be. Kudos to him for turning himself into a excellent 3 pt shooter. But he doesn’t have the handle, vision or body control to be considered a complete perimeter player. Problem 2 is he’s NOT a 4 either. He doesn’t rebound enough. All of which means his team has to mix and match at the other spots to leverage his skills. That’s not a real star.
Agreed, I just don’t see him as a PF. It’s going to take roster building and coaching strategy to make this work, but I still think it is a valuable contract that will age well.
Agreed. With mixing and matching around him it can work, and work great (it did in DEN). But a guy who’s not a first or second option that you have to mix and match around isn’t a 30 mm plus player.
A frenzy of signings on day one, while Cronin signs his own FA and cuts productive players like Watford and then let’s Eubanks walk away. This guy is a wannabe GM, who doesn’t have a clue how to proceed next. Trade Dame already and start this rebuild off with youth and hustle. It’s hard to watch this group try to run the ISO ball hog offense Lillard seems to prefer, it’s always “LAME-time” never team time. When will this old guard learn like KP3 did that it’s a team game? It’s about the name on the front of his jersey not the back. He will never have a team here that can cover his defensive liabilities. Billups started last year stating “no more hero ball” they came out playing fast breaking team ball and open 10-4, then shortened the rotation and returned to ISO ball. They say injuries changed their team but we all witnessed it was “selfishness” that derailed the team game. Lillard was on a mission to lead the league in scoring, but 71 points wasn’t enough to overtake the scoring race. They shut him down and began tanking while playing without him. Every time they started playing well, they shut down another team leader. The only thing evident from last season was; that they should have started Sharpe from day one and played a different style. Now this GM doesn’t seem to know which way to go “Young or Lame-time” Cronin please do this City a favor “Go Youth movement” Enough of destination stagnation!
They should of sign and trade him for a young PF like Smith jr in Houston. then trade Nurkic and two 2nd for a young center like Wiseman. Trade Lillard to Miami in maybe 3 team trade. Or trade Simons, Nurkic and Little with picks for a veteran SG SF and C to start. Great bench for the future.
What a massive overpay for a guy whose numbers don’t impact in a winning way. No wonder Lillard wants out.
His # are inflated because he was option 1 in Detroit and Option 2 in Portland and Dame was hurt so even more opportunities to shoot! Reminds me of K love coming out of Minnesota! Grant was on a decent team in Denver and was hot trash which led to him actually being traded