Philadelphia 76ers: Jerami Grant isn’t an ideal fit next to Joel Embiid

Philadelphia 76ers fans have a sort of romanticized memory of “The Process.”

The final scores didn’t matter, the tickets were dirt cheap on StubHub, and more than a few players turned extended tryout periods into long and fruitful NBA careers. From Christian Wood, to Ish Smith, and “The People’s Champion,” T.J. McConnell, while all 99 of the players who rode Brett Brown’s bench – at least according to that one The Rights to Ricky Sanchez podcast shirt – aren’t still in the NBA today, many have transcended their humble roots in Philly to become legit NBA players.

One of those former Sixers is Jerami Grant, who played all of two games with Joel Embiid in 2016 before being traded to the OKC Thunder for Ersan Ilyasova and a 2020 first-round pick that eventually netted the team Tyrese Maxey in a very convoluted way.

To his credit, Grant has become a pretty darn good player; he’s averaged double-digit points in each of the past four seasons, remained a good defender, and even developed an above-average 3 point shot, albeit on average volume.

Needless to say, when Jerami Grant comes to town, fans have made it a tradition to cheer him on like one of their own, but that doesn’t mean a reunion with the Philadelphia 76ers makes much sense. In practice, re-pairing the former second-round pickup with Joel Embiid doesn’t make very much sense at all.

The Philadelphia 76ers were right to rebuff a trade headlined by Jerami Grant.

Allow me to describe two players for you with their names removed to protect their identity. For the sake of comparison, the following stats are Per 36, but know that the two forwards play roughly the same number of minutes (~34 minutes).

Player 1: 21.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 2.8 assists on 41-33-85 shooting.

Player 2: 18.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 3.9 assists on 46-31-86 shooting.

Tough call, right? The first player averages more points, but the latter is a better playmaker and hauls in more rebounds. Considering neither player is a particularly efficient shooter from the field or beyond the arc, the two players appear to be more or less comparable, right?

Well, as you may or may not have guessed, those players are none other than Jerami Grant and Tobias Harris, who were Player 1 and Player 2, respectively.

Surprising? Yes. Based on pedigree alone, I assumed that Grant would have better rebounding numbers and better overall shooting splits considering his scoring pedigree, but those are, in fact, the numbers from which you, me, and Daryl Morey have at our disposal to compare the two players in question.

My takeaway? Harris and Grant are redundant players, and neither are ideal fits paired up with Joel Embiid long-term.

‘Why?’ Well, I’m glad you asked.

While Embiid is a dynamic player who can score from anywhere, he does much of his best work in the paint, where he routinely draws double and even triple teams before he gets the basketball. To combat this, a too routine strategy, Embiid has developed into a darn good passer from inside the arc and benefits greatly from having quick trigger shooters waiting in the wings for an open shot.

Georges Niang perfectly fits that bill, as does Seth Curry. Grant and Harris, however, do not, as neither shoot 3s at even the NBA’s average clip of 35 percent and of the two, only the former takes more 3s than Niang – .3 to be exact – on 10.4 more minutes of action per game.

If Harris and Grant made the exact same amount of money, one could legitimately argue that some teams would prefer one over the other depending on their needs and preferences, but in this current climate, that isn’t the case. No, because Grant makes $15 million less than Harris per year on a contract with one fewer years, he’s arguably the third-biggest name on the trade market behind Ben Simmons and John Collins, whereas the latter is only likely to get moved if the Sacramento Kings pony up a massive haul worth at least $51.75 million in combined salary.

Either way, if the Sixers are going to make a big trade centered around their second-best player, it probably isn’t going to be for Grant, especially since Saddiq Bey, Kelly Olynyk, and a first-round pick don’t exactly sweeten the pot enough to fully commit to a frontcourt of Embiid, Harris, and Grant long-term.

The Philadelphia 76ers only get to trade Ben Simmons once. They will likely never get this sort of opportunity to upgrade their roster during the Joel Embiid era again, and if the return isn’t a legit superstar, it has to be a perfect set of complementary players and/or the assets required to secure them in the not too distant future. Jerami Grant falls into neither category and thus should probably stay on the alumni page of the team’s website instead of on the active roster.