Philadelphia 76ers: Jerami Grant hit the lottery with Cade Cunningham

Hey Philadelphia 76ers fans, do you remember Jerami Grant?

6-foot-8? 210 pounds? The son of Harvey, the nephew of Horis, and the brother of Jerian?

You don’t? My goodness, you may just have to turn in your “Process” card, my friend.

The 39th overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, Grant spent a little over two seasons with the Sixers during their peak tanking efforts from 2014-16, before being shipped out to a then-contending OKC team looking for a little extra size off the wings.

The price? Ersan Ilyasova and the pick that would eventually be used to select Tyrese Maxey, even if it took a little bit of a detour to get here.

Now at the time, that deal by then-GM Bryan Colangelo was a decent enough return for a combo forward lacking in a reliable outside shot. The Sixers still had Robert Covington, and the addition of Ilyasova gave a then-debuting Joel Embiid a quality four-man to help stretch the court.

But in the subsequent years, Grant has not only found his outside shot but become one of the better two-way 3-and-D forwards in the NBA while splitting his time between the Thunder and the Denver Nuggets.

And now? Well, after opting to sign with a bottom-feeding Detroit Pistons squad in 2020, the former member of the Philadelphia 76ers is expected to spend his 2021-22 season as the 1b to first overall pick Cade Cunningham after his squad landed the top-overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft Lottery.

Boy, isn’t it nice to see good things happen to former players?

Jerami Grant’s decision should make Process-era Philadelphia 76ers fans proud.

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When Jerami Grant decided to spurn the Denver Nuggets for a comparable contract with the Detroit Pistons in 2020, many around the NBA scratched their heads.

On paper, Grant was seemingly in a perfect position to succeed; He was a steady contributor on the third-best team in the West, averaged double-digit points for the second straight season, and was afforded an opportunity to play alongside a center who averaged seven assists per game. Why on earth would Grant pass that up for a chance to play for a team coming off a 20-win season? Why waste three years of your prime on a team that hadn’t logged a winning record since 2016 for $60 million when the same deal was on the table with Denver?

One word: Opportunity.

In Denver, Grant started 24 of a possible 71 games and took an average of 8.9 field goals per game, good for the fifth-highest mark on the team. While some players would happily accept that situation, earn their money outside of the spotlight, and compete for championships in a surprisingly open Western Conference, Grant saw an opportunity to start full-time as the number one option with Dwane Casey‘s squad and decided to bet on himself.

Guess what? It worked.

Granted, not in the form of wins and losses, as Detroit won an identical number of games in 2020-21 as they did in 2019-20 with a few more losses added in for good measure, but Grant led the team in points and shots while forming an elite one-two forward punch alongside Villanova rookie wunderkind Saddiq Bey.

And now, with two seasons left on his initial contract, Grant earns an opportunity to not only play alongside expected first overall pick Cade Cunningham, assuming Detroit follows through with drafting the OSU product with their Lottery selection, but also experience what it’s like to be part of a team that actually cashes in on their developmental potential.

Despite technically playing alongside Joel Embiid for two games during his third and final season with the Philadelphia 76ers, he was traded on November 1st of 2016 after only appearing in two games with the team. The same goes for OKC. Sure, the Thunder went to the playoffs in all three of Grant’s seasons with the team, but they were long past their “Thunderstruck” Big 3 and lost in the first round time, after time, after time again.

Heck, even Grant’s most recent team, the Nuggets, were a basically finished product when he walked through the door via trade before the 2019-20 season opened up.

Now, Grant gets to be a focal point of a team rapidly developing from a borderline guaranteed W on the schedule to an intriguing young squad with ascending expectations and a better shot at getting national TV games due to the box-office nature of their soon-to-be star. If Grant can usher winning ways back to Detroit, a city that hasn’t had sustained success since last decade, he’ll be a local hero, a top jersey seller, and may even earn a signature pie from one of their famous pizzerias.

Winning as a top player just leaves a different legacy than being a role-playing journeyman.

Next. Tobias Harris is a poor fit next to Ben Simmons. dark

So good for you, Jerami Grant. While there’s literally no way you could have predicted that the Detroit Pistons would land the top-overall pick one year after you signed – outside of the fact that they would surely be bad – it’s always nice to see a former member of the Philadelphia 76ers end up in an advantageous situation, especially when it doesn’t necessarily impact Philly’s title chances anytime soon.