2014 Small Forwards in the Lottery and Free Agents
- Thread starter jazzrule
- Start date
I prefer slut.
RealSyracuse
New Member
I'm from Syracuse, NY (the REAL Syracuse) and remain a die hard Orangemen fan living in Utah. I've grown into taking interest in the Jazz because I've come to appreciate how good Kevin O'Connor is and have started reading this message board a little bit. I can speak a little bit to Jerami Grant.
His father is Harvey Grant, and his uncle is Horace Grant, so the NBA bloodlines are exceptional. It shows in his game. He's an intuitive player. Watching him play, everything just looks natural. He cuts well in to space, he gets great positioning for rebounds, he can operate a little bit with the ball in his hands. There's a fluidity to the way he plays that you don't usually see in a player so young. He's not a freak athlete, but he is explosive. He had some blocks and dunks that you wouldn't expect from a guy his height. From what I saw he blends in well with whatever teammates or rotation he lands on.
He can improve as a ball handler, and he can improve as a shooter, both in terms of his range and consistency, but he's not really bad at those things he's just still got room to grow. His passing is adequate, but he's not really a playmaker. He defends well and does a good job of holding position by using his feet. He made one of the US teams that is going to compete internationally this summer, but came down with mono and isn't playing. The Syracuse team is taking one of those once in 4 year exhibition trips this summer (Montreal) and Syracuse fans are optimistic that he'll be ready to participate in those games.
All of this said... Syracuse's team is pretty stacked at the forward position. Last season Grant played behind CJ Fair (one of the best college basketball players nobody pays attention to), Rakeem Christmas, a former burger boy, and James Southerland, who is currently playing on the 76ers summer league team so there was a lot of talent there. My guess is Fair and Christmas continue to start at forward ahead of Grant, and a slick looking freshman forward named Tyler Roberson will also compete for playing time. The way Syracuse plays, both in terms of responsibilities on offense and especially with the assignments of the 2-3 zone defense, the forward are pretty much interchangeable, so even if he doesn't start he'll get his minutes. I just don't know if Grant will play enough, or be featured enough to jump in to the lottery. At some point, I think he'll be a very good pro and a team will be smart to draft him. I don't know that he has the top end potential of Wiggins/Parker though. My guess is, Grant's probably not a lotto guy and he may not come out after this upcoming season, but the Jazz will have a bunch of draft picks coming up, so who knows?
Stickler
Well-Known Member
It's not really accurate to say he played behind Granger. Granger plays SF, Rush is a SG. And in Indiana, Rush was given plenty of opportunities to take the starting shooting guard spot and make it his own. The knock against him was that he played extremely passively. He had the tools of a great shooter and a good defender, but he disappeared for entire games where he didn't really do anything on the court, and it didn't really look like he was trying to. He got busted by the league a couple of times in Indiana for violating the drug policy (marijuana) before the Pacers gave up on him.
I agree with you that his potential in the NBA is as a solid back-up. He won't give you anything more than that. Seems to have the tools, but not the mentality to do anything more.
Gegenläufigen
Banned
otto porter is your daddy
RealSyracuse
New Member
He played great against Syracuse at the Carrier Dome, it's true.
Sadly for him, his college career ended by losing to Syracuse in overtime at the final true Big East tournament, and then with a loss as a 2 seed to Dunk City in the NCAA tourney.
He'll just have to comfort himself with the millions he makes as the #3 draft pick I guess.