When the Portland Trail Blazers tip off their season on Wednesday night, Jerami Grant will be coming off the bench for the first time since he joined the organization in 2022. In the grand scheme of things, this may not end up being the most favorable situation for the team.
According to a report from The Rose Garden Report's Sean Highkin, the Blazers will be starting Jrue Holiday, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara, Deni Avdija and Donovan Clingan on Wednesday evening against the Minnesota Timberwolves. I would argue this is the right move to make purely from a basketball standpoint, but the human element is going to matter at some point too.
Moving Grant to the bench this season, I would say, is both justified and adjacent to a harsh truth for Portland: that when a highly paid veteran isn't perhaps in the exact role they were hoping for, productivity tends to drop. After being a consistent starter, Jerami is now going to find himself watching the starting unit from the pine.
Jerami Grant hasn't come off the bench since arriving in Portland
Firstly, we can see that this move was warranted given Grant's performance last season as well as the needs of this current group. After he shot such a low percentage from the floor last year and younger wings on the roster looked primed to take a step up, the writing was already on the wall for something like this to happen.
We already saw Grant talk at media day about this topic. After expressing very candidly that he didn't think he was going to be back with the team this season, Grant also stated that he didn't expect to be coming off the bench this season. Clearly, the situation that's unfolding right now is one he didn't exactly see coming. And that of course lends the question of whether he will be willing to accept this role, and whether he will still be a productive player for the Trail Blazers.
The calculus for Portland is really pretty simple. If Jerami does buy into more of a sixth man role and can still bring shot creation, leadership and be reliable defensively, he's still going to add value to this team. But if he resists or his play takes a serious dip, the Blazers are going to be stuck with an expensive forward taking away minutes from younger talent while offering somewhat diminished returns.
At the end of the day, I think most would agree that the benching was justified for Grant. But what happens next may or may not be for the ultimate good of the franchise and its future direction.