Portland Trail Blazers: 3 forwards for Nassir Little to emulate

2. Jerami Grant

Jerami Grant went from requisite role player to a number one option in one season’s time and his discovered ability to create his own shot played a huge role in getting him there.

For the Denver Nuggets, Grant was tasked with finishing on cuts, hitting open spot-up threes, and occasionally barreling to the rim on a line-drive for two. Since he was traded to the Detroit Pistons, he has shouldered a much heavier offensive workload as their number one option and responded better than many expected.

Last season, he averaged over 22 points on 17 shots per game. More important than the point totals was how he poured in his buckets.

In the above clip, Grant uses a between-the-legs crossover to get by a pretty good, young defender in Patrick Williams and then a eurostep to finish around Wendell Carter Jr. It wasn’t often that he made moves like this in Denver. In this same game, he dropped 43 points on Chicago’s heads, mixing in a variety of drives and pullup jays.

Grant still isn’t the most fluid athlete at his size, but by working on his ballhandling, has crafted some go-to moves to get himself to his spots.

Seeing him as a raw, athletic rookie, not many pundits would have expected him to be creating his own offense at such a high-level. Nassir Little already has a head start on a young Grant, so if he can show the same rate of development, he’ll be a danger to defenses for years to come.