10. SF Jerami Grant
Grant gets the edge over the aforementioned Luwawu and a spot in the top 10 due to the luxury of experience, as a couple solid seasons has solidified him as somebody Brett Brown will rely on in reserve next season. The rangy forward has utilized his gifted athletic tools to carve out a niche thus far despite a somewhat underdeveloped skill set, and has found ways to make a noteworthy impact on both sides of the ball as his development continues.
While he doesn’t necessarily play with the same control Luwawu showed at times, Grant’s ability to cover ground is impressive on both sides of the ball. He’s tough to contain en route to the basket given his incredible bounce and uncanny length at the small forward spot, and he has shown several signs of tightening up his handle and potentially limited some of the turnovers that can hurt him as well.
Grant’s outside shot isn’t very pretty still and it remains a weakness at times, but he has been methodically working on it to the tune of some subtle improvements. His mechanics don’t seem broken by any account, and the Sixers’ developmental staff seem to be in the process of pulling off another impressive conversion with a raw athletic prospect.
He’s never going to be a reliable perimeter scoring option, but he has proven himself to be trending in the right direction of somebody who could certainly be servicable in that regard. He has all the physical tools to get into the teeth of the defense and carve out shots for himself around the basket, it’s simply a matter of him adding the reqiste moves to his arsenal as time presses forward.
Grant has the defensive chops to earn some recognition here as well. He’s not the most fine-tuned decision maker on that side of the ball, but he’s extremely feisty and has the lateral quickness to get into passing lanes and disrupt the flow of the game, even when he’s not necessarily making the correct basketball play from a coverage standpoint.
He’s a younger, developing piece that truly characterizes the process behind the Sam Hinkie era in a number of ways. He didn’t come into the league as an NBA-ready player, but the Sixers were able to give him minutes on an awful team for the purpose of development and ended up creating a worthwhile prospect as a result.
Next: 9. Bayless