Don’t Take Him For Granted: A Look at Jerami Grant’s Rookie Year

On June 26^th, 2014, Jerami Grant waited quite a while to finally hear his name be called in the 2014 NBA Draft. Grant was the 39^th overall selection by the 76ers, who picked three other players before him. Grant used that number 39 as motivation, deciding to make it his jersey number to motivate himself to be better. The former Syracuse forward may have waited to hear his name on draft day, but he didn’t wait to contribute when he got on the court. Although he missed the first few weeks of the season with an ankle injury, he was great when he debuted.

Grant averaged 6.3 points per game, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks per game while playing 21.2 minutes per contest. Grant showed off his length by blocking eight shots in a single game, the most by a Sixers rookie since Shawn Bradley did it in 1994. You can’t forget those eye popping dunks either. For the most part, Grant seems like a solid second-round pick but could develop into a regular starter by progressing into a more well-rounded player. Let’s take a look back on his interesting rookie season.

What needs to be improved:

Shooting

The Syracuse product shot 35.2 percent from the field and 31.4 percent from three. Grant was never a lights out shooter, but his low field goal percentage comes as a bit of a surprise considering he finished his Syracuse career by shooting a moderate 50 percent in his two years there. However, him taking nearly 2.5 three’s per game impacted his overall shooting percentage.

The good news is his shot is far from broken, and another year of training from an incredible Sixers staff will fix this problem quickly. Grant’s free throw rating fell below 60 percent , which is another concern for Sixers fans. Grant has the ability to get to the line with his athletic ability around the basket, but in 2014, that wasn’t such a good thing as he hit only 114 free-throws out of 193.

Overall, Grant must improve his play on the offense to become a consistent starter for the Sixers since he has seemed to prove himself as a solid defender throughout the year, even racking up a respectable 1.4 DWS (Defensive Win Shares) rating.

Now that the criticism is over, lets look at Grant’s top moments from his rookie season.

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Best Game: This was tough to decide. At first, his 18-point outburst against Cleveland seemed like the sure pick, but there is no way of ignoring his historic eight–block game against the Knicks. It also helped that he did it against the Knicks. Although he only scored 4 points, Grant showed stuffing ability with some huge blocks in just 25 minutes. Here are all of his blocks from that game.

Best Block: Jerami Grant says nope to Terrence Ross.

Best Dunk: Oh yeah, he can dunk too.

Best Tweet:  Jerami uses Twitter a lot to communicate with fans and hosts #AskJerami sessions, but his best tweet came while watching his brother and potential lottery pick Jerian Grant.

Do I sense some Brotherly Love in the City of Brotherly Love?

Overall, Jerami Grant had a nice rookie year. Nothing spectacular but definitely not horrendous. He showed some scoring outbursts throughout the season but hasn’t seen any consistent scoring. With some more experience under his belt after hitting a few bumps this year, expect him to come out strong next season.