NBA trade rumors are starting to heat up and one player that the Los Angeles Lakers appear to be honing in on is Jerami Grant. Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the Lakers are interested in both Grant and Ben Simmons, with Grant being the much more realistic option for the Lakers. A Simmons trade certainly isn’t happening.
While the Lakers rumors around Grant might sound appealing, trading for the current Piston would be a mistake by the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers are going to look to improve by any means necessary and that might mean pulling the trigger on a Grant trade. And while it will be exciting at first if it happens, fans will quickly realize that it was a mistake. Let’s break down why.
Lakers rumors: Three reasons why trading for Jerami Grant would be a massive mistake.
1. Jerami Grant is currently injured!
Jerami Grant literally just sprained his thumb on Sunday and is going to miss at least six weeks as a result. There is still a trade market for him, though, and perhaps the Lakers are hoping that this injury lowers his cost and puts them ahead of the pack in terms of what they can offer.
While that is the glass-half-full way to look at it, the glass-half-empty, and much more realistic, way to look at it is to point out that he wouldn’t even play for the Lakers until after the All-Star Break!
This is a team that is struggling to stay above .500 and has already dealt with injuries this season. The last thing the team needs to do is bring in another player who is dealing with an injury. Not only will the Lakers miss out on some regular-season games, but they will miss out on some very important on-court time.
We saw it last season. Teams need time to gel together and bringing Grant in to play 20 games at the end of the season and expecting it to work, especially when the team has not even figured it out yet, is completely unrealistic.
2. Jerami Grant is not as good as you might think
I might get some pushback on this but Jerami Grant might just be one of the more overrated players in the league. Don’t get me wrong, he has a lot of value as a role player in a title-contending rotation but that is all he would be: a glorified role player. Grant’s numbers are a bit misleading and he wouldn’t have the kind of impact on the Lakers that some may expect.
Grant is a classic good stats on a bad team player. Prior to joining the Detroit Pistons he contributed in moderation. As soon as Detroit inked him to his new deal all of his averages went up as he was playing in games that, quite frankly, meant nothing alongside players who are not that good.
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Sure, it looks good that Grant has averaged over 20 points per game the last two years but he has not been efficient in the slightest in those two seasons. Grant has an effective field goal percentage under 50% in the last two years. For comparison’s sake, Kyle Kuzma was at 53.3% last season and that was not all that efficient.
Grant cannot stretch the floor consistently and he is not that great of a defender, either. Grant is a glorified version of Kuzma and might even be a lesser version of Kuzma. If you put Kuzma on the Pistons would he score 20 per game? Probably.
The Lakers would be trading for someone who would have a near-identical impact on the team as Kyle Kuzma last season. That certainly is a positive impact, but it is not as big of an impact as some would expect because of his name.
3. Talen Horton-Tucker would have to be traded
I am not completely against the Los Angeles Lakers trading Talen Horton-Tucker, who has definitely been mentioned in the Lakers rumors mill. That being said, if the Lakers are going to trade THT then they need to trade him for someone who is truly worth it. For the reasons already outlined, I do not think Grant is worth it.
THT is the only player on the Lakers with future potential. Granted, he can opt-out of his current contract after next season but I would still take that over Grant. The Lakers didn’t want to trade for Kyle Lowry last season because THT had to be involved. Why trade for a glorified role player in Grant?
It would be one thing if THT was not contributing much to the team but he is contributing. Sure, his play has been a bit underwhelming this season but he is still the best perimeter defender that the Lakers have on the roster. The Lakers being one of the worst defensive teams in the league makes THT more valuable.
There is definitely a select number of players that are worth THT and if the Lakers can truly make an impactful upgrade by trading him then they should do so. Grant is not an upgrade. The team essentially picked THT over Alex Caruso and to flip that for Jerami Grant would be ridiculous.
But hey, teams make weird moves when they are desperate and that is how the Lakers have gotten to where they are currently at in the first place.