The trade of Ersan Ilyasova for Jerami Grant is finally paying dividends. It looked really stupid for a while there, and I bet the Thunder could use a nice stretch four right about now whose name isn’t Patrick Patterson, but Grant is looking really good this year while Ilyasova is looking a little old. Sorry Illy, but part of love is being honest, and you haven’t been the same these last few games, even when you do play.
After starting the season with three straight single-digit games (all games where he didn’t start), Grant has rattled off nothing but double-digit efforts except for one game, starting every one. Coincidentally, that’s when the Thunder started winning some frickin’ games. Except “coincidentally” implies that the events aren’t related, when in this case they absolutely are, because Grant, according to the eye test, is playing great.
He’s hitting threes too. Did I mention that? He can hit threes now, the past few years he was able to take them but not make them, now he can make them for sure. So, in the end, he actually is the stretch four that the Thunder always wanted.