Here’s what the pundits saw when the Pistons gave Jerami Grant a $60 million deal in the offseason: a role player without a single 30-point game in his six-year career.
Here’s what they’re seeing now: a rising star who put up 30-plus for the second straight game in Detroit’s win over Brooklyn on Tuesday and for the fifth game this season.
Grant's latest explosion was his most impressive: 32 points on just 19 shots, plus five rebounds and four assists. In an 11-point win over one of the best teams in the East. He outscored both Kyrie and Harden, just three days after going toe to toe with LeBron and AD in an double-OT loss to the defending champs. Kind of like when he upstaged Giannis on a Friday in January, then turned around on Sunday and one-upped Devin Booker.
The NBA didn't want to consider Grant an elite player this season. It was easier to mock the idea he could become one. Is it time to reconsider? And here's the thing: the Pistons are only paying him like a great player, maybe even a good player. Grant's $19.05 million salary this year ranks 56th in the league. His 24.3 points per game rank 15th. Discounting rookie deals, he's the only player among the NBA's top 25 scorers making under $20 million.
Here's what Dwane Casey saw when the Pistons gave Grant a $60 million deal:
"I didn't know," Casey said Tuesday night.
As in, I didn't know he had this in him. That is, I didn't know if he had this in him. Casey doesn't make judgements on players before he coaches them himself. He doesn't listen to whatever people are saying around the league, like those who told him last year the Pistons should avoid Christian Wood. Casey, who coached seven years in Japan before landing a job in the NBA, then another 11 years as an assistant before getting a chance as a head coach, enjoys players with something to prove.
Grant was a second-round pick who spent the majority of his career coming off the bench. He's started all 24 games this season for Detroit.
"The (only) thing I was worried about was trying to do too much and having turnovers and forcing things, and he hasn’t done that at all," Casey said. "He’s been as efficient as any player in the league."
It's true. Of the NBA's top 30 scorers this season, Grant has the lowest rate of turnovers at 1.5 per game. And while his field goal percentage is relatively poor within that group, let's remember Grant is doing this on a last-place team without anything close to a costar. Now that Derrick Rose is gone, the Pistons' second highest scorer is ... Josh Jackson. Grant's burden is Grant's alone, and his shoulders just keep getting stronger.
"I’m so happy for him," Casey said. "You have all the critics who have all the answers. ‘What are the Pistons doing?’ yada-yada. It just tells you, you have to be careful what you say or read into someone. He’s proving everybody wrong, which is great to see."
Here's what Troy Weaver saw when the Pistons gave Grant a $60 million deal: a long, athletic defender with untapped offensive potential. But he couldn't have possibly seen this, the missing star for the franchise, the needed jolt for the rebuild and one of the best bargains in the game.