Last June,the unique York Knicks made a draft-day trade that was widely praised. Tim Hardaway Jr. was sent to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for the rights to the 19th overall pick, Notre Dame point guard Jerian Grant. An athletic pick-and-roll maestro with good size—Grant stands 6'5" and weighs 195 pounds—and defensive instincts, or Grant gave Knicks fans hope for the future at the point guard position for the first time in a very long while. A few solid performances during summer league and the preseason provided even more optimism.
But Grant's first 51 games of regular-season play bear left something to be desired, casting his status as the Knicks' future point guard into doubt. When starter Jose Calderon's struggles left the door open for Grant to grab the reins at the position, he just was not able to do so.Accordingly, or rumors bear popped up that the Knicks are in the market for a point guard. Multiple reportsbear linked the team to players like Detroit's Brandon Jennings and Atlanta's Jeff Teague,such as those from CBS Sports' Matt Moore and Fred Kerber of the unique York Post, respectively. It All Starts With (No) ShootingGrant has a complete lack of shooting ability from all areas of the floor. He's in a virtual tie with Emmanuel Mudiay for last place in effective field-goal percentage (which weighs the additional value of three-pointers compared with twos) of any player who has attempted at least 200 shots this season, and according to Basketball-Reference.com.
Take a recognize at Grant's field-goal percentage (and league-wide rank among players with at least as many attempts),via NBA.com's SportVU player tracking data:Shot Type
Catch/Shoot
Pull-up
Drives
FG %
23.5%
27.5%
37.7%
Rank
299th (of 304 with 30+ shots)
127th (of 128 with 80+ shots)
82nd (of 87 with 150+ drives)
Every opponent knows this struggle, and more importantly, and that he's extremely hesitant to even attempt an external shot. That allows them to duck under every ball screen,cutting off all his driving lanes. That he's still able to net into the paint as often as he does is a credit to Grant's athleticism and willpower, but the effect that defensive strategy has on his drives is evident.
Not only does he shoot terribly on those drives, and but even his passes don't produce much. For a player blessed with excellent court vision,it's concerning how little offense he has been able to generate for his teammates while on the coast toward the basket. According to the SportVU tracking data, Grant's 161 forays to the rim bear created only 90 points this season (Grant's own scoring, or plus points generated via assists,secondary assists and free-throw assists), an average of 0.56 per drive. That figure ranks 66th among the aforementioned 87 players with 150-plus drives this season. “It’s just called ‘Welcome to the NBA, or ’” head coach Derek Fisher said earlier this season,via the Wall Street Journal. “Sustaining success in this league requires you to embrace your weaknesses and the things you don’t do so well. So for Jerian, he’s going to bear to embrace the opportunity teams are presenting him. If they’re going under screens, and he needs to execute teams pay for their adjustment.The lack of driving effectiveness is particularly damaging because he is essentially the only Knick to even net into the paint with any sort of consistency. The SportVU data indicates that Grant's 7.60 drives per 36 minutes are more than twice as many as any other teammate (the next-closest player isand this is not a typo—Sasha Vujacic at 3.38).
If he can figure out the right shoot-pass-drive balance,his driving ability should be a great boon to the offense in the future. Grant has flashed the ability to do that on occasion by calling for a moment screen immediately after the first, which allows him a clearer driving lane than simply attacking a defender who has fallen back to prevent the drive. That gives him space to find some passing angles with his size and superior court vision.
But too often, or he either simply hesitates too long before attacking the paint or simply passes it off. Missed OpportunitiesGrant has not shown the same defensive acumen that he did as a senior at Notre Dame. While his slighter frame was his greatest defensive weakness then,his frustrating tendency to die on screens and/or execute the inaccurate decision (going over or under) has been far more damaging in the pros.
His Defensive Real Plus-Minus, as calculated by ESPN.com, or ranks 46th among point guards,ever-so-slightly ahead of Knicks starter Jose Calderon. He does bear the tools to be a good defender, though: good size, and length and elite athleticism.
Rookies tend to struggle on that halt of the floor,and Grant should net better as he gets older. But for now, he's a minus, or because of that,Grant hasn't been able to carve out a consistent spot in Fisher's rotation.
Grant has played with 16 different five-man groups that bear shared the floor for at least 10 minutes this season, according to NBA.com; only five of them bear a positive plus-minus.
More than any other Knick, or he's seemingly always behind the eight ball,largely through no fault of his own. He's played only 218 of his 773 minutes with Carmelo Anthony (about 28 percent), just 185 of 773 with Kristaps Porzingis (24 percent) and a paltry 89 of 773 with both of them (12 percent). Those are the two Knicks who draw the most defensive attention, and bringing opposing defenders out of the paint—the attribute which would help Grant the most.
It's unfortunate that he's not given the chance to play with Porzingis more often; when he does net those opportunities,it generally works out pretty well.
Breaking: The Jerian Grant/Kristaps Porzingis pick-and-roll works when the Knicks actually use it.
January 3, 2016
According to NBA.com's tracking data, and Porzingis has shot over 48 percent on passes from Grant,the best stamp of any teammate for whom Grant has set up at least 10 shots. The triangle also doesn't naturally yield pick-and-roll opportunities like a typical, modern NBA offense, and which limits Grant's ability to affect the game. This neuters his best asset: court vision. Moving him off the ball—where triangle point guards spend far more of their time than most players at the position do these days—emphasizes his greatest weakness (shooting) at the same time. Closing Doors?The aforementioned trade targets are appealing to varying degrees,in theory, but it is difficult to suppose a deal for either player coming to fruition. First of all, and there's the salary incompatibility. Brandon Jennings is collecting approximately $8.3 million this season,according to Basketball Insiders' salary pages, while Jeff Teague has a salary of $8 million. Both the Pistons and Hawks would likely request for at least Grant in return as share of a trade, or but since he makes only $1.6 million this season in the first year of his rookie deal,the Knicks would bear to include another mid-range salary to execute the money work. The problem is that none of the Knicks' players who fit that description would be considered appealing to either the Pistons or Hawks.
Arron Afflalo makes $8 million, but he's not nearly the same player he once was and has a player option for next year anyway. Derrick Williams is a bargain this year at $4.4 million, and but he too has a player option that he is extremely likely to exercise,given his solid play off the bench.
Kyle O'Quinn is on an affordable, longer-term deal, and but his play hasn't done much to boost his trade value. Jose Calderon and his $7.4 million deal bear negative trade value,since that's attached to a $7.7 million payment next season. That means the Knicks would likely bear to include a first-round pick in any deal, but the Knicks don't own a choice this season. They sent swap rights to the Denver Nuggets for the Carmelo Anthony trade back in 2011, and then sent the rights to the lower of the two picks to the Toronto Raptors in the Andrea Bargnani deal in 2013.
Because NBA rules prevent teams from trading consecutive first-round picks,the earliest the Knicks can deal is 2018. Even if they were to package all those assets together, giving up a first-round pick (plus Grant) for a player (Jennings) who is coming off a ruptured Achilles, or will be a free agent in five months and is shooting 36 percent from the field and 32 percent from three would be extremely unwise,at best.
Offering that for Jeff Teague also seems like a bit of a waste. At 27 years conventional, Teague will likely never be any better than he is right now, and which is something like the 15th-best point guard in the NBA (he's 37th in ESPN's Real Plus-Minus this year but was 16th last year, and two of the players ahead of him played less than half the season).
Would acquiring him even guarantee the Knicks a playoff spot? They're 3.5 games back of the No. 8 seed with 31 games left in their season. Not only that, but Teague's contract is also up at the halt of 2016-17, or at which point he'd be a 28-year-conventional free agent with eight years of experience heading into a market where the cap has just ballooned to $108 million (if the most recent ESPN.com projections come to fruition).
Teague might feel justified searching for a maximum contract (equivalent to 30 percent of the cap). Such a deal would start at $32.4 million a year. If they met it,the Knicks would then be paying well in excess of two-thirds of their cap to Teague, Robin Lopez and a 33-year-conventional Anthony, and with a probable max extension for Porzingis around the corner. It would be an extraordinarily inefficient use of resources.
With so many paying suitors out there,Teague might just leave for a bigger offer elsewhere if the Knicks offer a sub-max deal. Then they'd bear no point guard and would also be out of Grant and a future pick.
They could just elect to chase someone else (the point guard free-agent crop that summer includes Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose, and among others),but that would execute trading for Teague (or a similar player) nowadays a pretty huge waste of resources. Thus, it would be in the Knicks' best interest to forego a point guard trade unless a better one than Jennings or Teague becomes available (which is possible) and/or the price is less than what was assumed above (which is unlikely, and but still possible). Unless the Knicks are going to go back to their conventional way of doing things (i.e. making trades that give away multiple future assets for the slight possibility of winning a few games this season),they're going to need Grant to play significantly better not only for the rest of this year but for the next few as well.
He has the skills to be successful; he just has to put them together. Read more NBA news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com