The Jerami Grant renaissance has been a wonderful subplot for the Blazers season. After perhaps the worst year of his career in 2024-25, Grant has been a flamethrower off the bench for the Blazers to start '25-26, averaging 21.6 points while shooting 46.7 percent from 3-point range. It's a pretty stunning turn of events for a guy who started his Blazers career as a consistent scorer before falling off a ledge last season.
He still shouldn't be in the starting lineup, though. At least not yet. If a few early trends continue developing how they are (and if they can even be called trends so early in the season), then a change might be warranted down the line. But at the moment, with Grant excelling in a sixth man role and the Blazers competing every night, there's no reason to make a panic change to the lineup.
The "trends" I mentioned earlier, however, do include the Blazers' current starting lineup having a net rating of minus-16.9. That's bad — but it's in 50 minutes of playing time, and includes a point guard who's never played with these guys before this season.
It's also important to note that the net rating of the starting lineup with Shaedon Sharpe swapped out and Jerami Grant swapped in, is minus-10.0. Also bad! Thus, the idea of merely swapping out the struggling Shaedon Sharpe for the hot-shooting Jerami Grant doesn't hold much merit yet.
Blazers have plenty of time to experiment with lineups
The Blazers are 3-2 and most of their games have been pretty sloppy. The team is No. 23 in turnover rate, which isn't much of a surprise because they're running so much more than they have in past seasons. Numbers are going to be wacky (for better or worse) for the first few weeks of the season. If this starting five is still being outscored so thoroughly by mid-November, then Splitter might be wise to consider a switch.
With a new coach, a new style of play, and a new starting point guard running the show, an adjustment period should be expected for these Blazers. So instead of seeing Jerami Grant's hot start and immediately asking for a lineup change, I think we should instead be happy the Blazers have a great sixth man! Depth can be cool!
Jerami Grant is playing great basketball and the Blazers have a winning record. No matter Grant's role, this is a wonderful development. Right now, there's no need to complicate that by switching things up too quickly.