Just last offseason, the Portland Trail Blazers had momentum in finding a trade partner to take on Jerami Grant. One team that made sense as a landing spot for Grant was the Los Angeles Lakers. Of course, a deal never materialized, mainly because of Blazers general manager Joe Cronin's greedy asking price of two first-round picks for Grant.
An anonymous scout who spoke to Anthony Irwin of Lakers Daily questioned Cronin's handling of the situation.
“Joe Cronin asking for two first-rounders for Jerami Grant is hilarious. Portland traded one first for him and then gave him that terrible contract. Why would he be more valuable now than he was when they landed him two years ago? But it’s what you can do when you feel like the other team is desperate.”
Blazers missed their window to dump Jerami Grant
Last summer was a golden opportunity for Portland to offload Grant. He no longer fit their rebuilding timeline with Damian Lillard out of the picture, who requested a trade just one day after Grant signed a massive (and questionable) five-year, $160 million deal.
Grant was coming off a strong season in which he averaged 21.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 2.8 assists on 45/40/82 shooting splits. From an efficiency standpoint, he had the best three-point shooting year of his career and still had value on the market.
The Lakers, in particular, made sense as a team in desperate need to upgrade their starting lineup to maximize LeBron James' window, as Father Time has finally seemed to be catching up to him. Cronin knew all of this and held firm.
The problem was that Los Angeles didn't bite, making minimal changes to its roster. As a result, Portland now had a nightmare Jerami Grant scenario in their hands.
Grant's production took a massive dip the following 2024-25 season, averaging 14.4 points on an abysmal efficiency of 37/37/85 shooting splits. As a result of his age, declining production, and contract (owed $102.6 million over the next three years), Grant is officially a negative asset.
That's a rapid change, going from asking for two first-round picks to having arguably the worst contract in the league, but that's the harsh reality for the Blazers. Now, it puts Portland in a scenario with no correct answer.
They don't want to attach draft capital to dump Grant. So now, they're stuck with him on the roster -- either taking a valuable starting spot away or paying a player north of $100 million to come off the bench. The lesser of evils is to bring Grant off the bench at this point.
In retrospect, looking at how quickly Grant became a negative asset, Portland should have immediately traded Grant for essentially anything, even if it was just an expiring deal. It will be expensive for the Blazers to retain their entire young core with Grant and Jrue Holiday's contracts on the books. Not to mention, trying to add external upgrades to help get back to the postseason.
This all could've been avoided last summer if Cronin had been realistic about Grant's value.