It’s been about a week since rumors surfaced of the Dallas Mavericks’ interest in Portland Trail Blazers forward Jerami Grant. But in the NBA, a week can sometimes feel like a lifetime, especially during trade season.
New reports have since pointed toward the Blazers not—I repeat, NOT—likely moving the 29-year-old. According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports, “Portland is not expected to seriously entertain offers for Grant … in contrast to veteran point guard Malcolm Brogdon.”
That last part is important context. Per Fischer and his sources, Portland will take calls on Brogdon. The team isn’t “holding” at the deadline, per se, but it also believes the market won’t produce a good enough deal for Grant over the next few weeks.
All of this makes sense. The Blazers shouldn’t be content to hold. Not when Brogdon has been a potential trade-block star since his arrival. Through half a season, he’s been key in guiding a young backcourt, but he’s not the future, and his on-court reps take reps away from a No. 3 pick Portland believes is a star in the making.
Looking at Grant’s season, the 10-year vet has averaged 21.4 points and has played well consistently. He’s also been a genuine source of fun throughout a campaign that has, at times, severely lacked it. That’s important when the line between losing games and building a losing culture is so aged-wine fine.
That last part is why the one thing the Trail Blazers can not do is trade both Brogdon and Grant right now. They just can’t. The idea of dealing Brogdon tracks with prioritizing the lottery over the play-in tournament. But moving Grant, too, removes almost all veteran leadership from the locker room, which is something that stays invaluable to a young core even as losses stack.
By this time next season, we could easily be having a different discussion. At that point, we’ll be a full year and a half into the Scoot Experiment. The team will likely have added at least one lottery pick from the 2024 class, if not a second, courtesy of the Golden State Warriors. By then, the rumor mill could be churning out nuggets about Portland shopping Grant, seeking prospects and draft assets to move along the multi-year rebuild.
The economics around Grant’s contract could also become more trade-friendly with time. Grant turns 30 in March, but with every passing year, teams have to swallow one fewer season from the current five-year, $160 million bag. The league’s impending TV deal could also bring in the kind of money that earns Grant-caliber players inflated salaries, making Grant’s deal itself inherently more valuable to contenders.
Of course, that’s looking too far ahead. If one week can feel like a lifespan during trade season, projecting a year out is a fool’s errand nine to 11 times out of 10.
For now, the Blazers have one date circled on the calendar: Thursday, Feb. 8. That day marks the league’s annual talent-swap meet, and that’s when Joe Cronin will turn a year’s worth of moleskin notebook trades into real-life Deal or No Deal—even if Jerami Grant’s name never comes up.
