Another pivotal summer for the Portland Trail Blazers got off to a rousing start on Wednesday, as the team filled its gaping hole on the wing by nabbing Jerami Grant in a pre-draft trade with the Detroit Pistons.
Grant's acquisition is hardly surprising by itself. He'd been linked to the Blazers in persistent trade rumors dating back to early last season, shortly after he got to know Damian Lillard with Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics. No prospective player-team marriage was mentioned more leading up to the February trade deadline than Grant and the Blazers.
Portland's first move of the offseason rocked the basketball world regardless, and not just because it marked the start of what's expected to be a frenzy of player movement surrounding Thursday's draft—where Joe Cronin and the Blazers still hold the seventh overall pick.
2 reasons Damian Lillard, Blazers win big with Jerami Grant trade
Holding onto No. 7
It's a testament to the extent of Cronin's winning asset play that this trade sparks just as much optimism about Portland's big picture as it does the team's chances to compete in 2022-23.
The prevailing assumption entering draft night was the Blazers would need to move the seventh overall pick in order to add a true impact player. A swap of No. 7 and salary flotsam for John Collins was bandied about, as was a bigger swing around that pick for OG Anunoby. Some scenarios had Portland trading their mid-lottery selection for a late-lottery one, picking up a lesser but quality contributor for the trouble.
But trading the Milwaukee Bucks' 2025 first-rounder (protected 1-4) and a massive trade exception, both acquired back in the C.J. McCollum deal, in exchange for Grant allows the Blazers to build for both the present and future.
Lillard is already getting the help he was promised with a versatile new starter like Grant in the fold. Does the latter's presence make Portland more comfortable about swinging for the fences with Shaedon Sharpe at No. 7? He's the only player in this class outside the top-four who has a legitimate chance to be the Blazers' next franchise player once Lillard slows down.
What looms largest here is that the seventh pick is still with Portland at all, no matter what Cronin and the front office do with it from here. Making another win-now trade for Anunoby, obviously, would be just as encouraging a path for the Blazers as drafting Sharpe or another talented rookie.
Portland Trail Blazers are in pursuit of Toronto Raptors forward OG Anunoby with the No. 7 pick in Thursday’s draft in play, league sources tell @YahooSports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 22, 2022
Finally a two-way wing
Lillard has wanted Portland to pursue immediate roster upgrades like this for over a year. After Neil Olshey's quiet swan song of an offseason and a hyper-active trade deadline that achieved flexibility more than anything else, more reports emerged that Lillard hoped the Blazers would pair him with a big, versatile wing who plays both sides of the ball—pretty much exactly the type of teammate he's never had in Rip City.
Grant is more of a streaky shooter than marksman. He doesn't quite have the athletic pop he did back with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets, somewhat curbing his effectiveness both around the rim and as a point-of-attack defender. But as Lillard and the Blazers know all too well, 6'8” three-level scorers who can capably check star wings and guard up or down the lineup are few and far between.
It'll be interesting to see how Grant functions offensively alongside Lillard and Anfernee Simons. Deadline chatter indicated he hoped to maintain his status as a primary scorer with his next team, and he'll be a third option in Portland. Grant also isn't the type of canny passer or quick decision-maker who would naturally thrive in the motion-heavy style of offense Chauncey Billups hopes to play.
The likeliest season Grant's actual value was lower than expected, by the way? His reported expectation of a contract extension that will pay him $112 million over four seasons, taking Grant well into his thirties with the Blazers.
Portland was never going to have real flexibility in free agency after paying Simons and Jusuf Nurkic, but ostensibly committing so much future money to a tools-reliant veteran like Grant isn't ideal—especially with Lillard soon poised for his own two-year, $107 million extension. The Blazers are locked into paying this core for a long time, and even if they dip into the luxury tax by adding another starter, there's no assurance they'll be good enough to compete at the top of the West.
Still, all those questions and concerns count as semantics given the significance of not just acquiring Grant, but keeping No. 7 in the process. Suddenly, the Blazers have multiple roads back to different types of relevance. Their summer couldn't have started any better.
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