The 2022 NBA Trade Deadline is less than three weeks away. Can the Minnesota Timberwolves make a splash and acquire Jerami Grant as they fight for a playoff spot in the Western Conference?
The Timberwolves need to improve their frontcourt rotation
The Timberwolves have had a question mark at the power forward spot for the past several years. Since the Feb. 2020 trade deadline, the Timberwolves have added D’Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, and Malik Beasley to their roster.
The only spot in the starting lineup that wasn’t directly addressed with a major acquisition was the power forward position.
Yes, the Wolves drafted Jaden McDaniels in the third round in Nov. 2020, but he was the third of three first-round picks and was expected to be more of a project. As it turns out, he’s been more NBA-ready than expected — on defense, at least — but is best cast as at the 3-spot at this stage.
They also acquired their current starting power forward, Jarred Vanderbilt, as part of the four-team trade that brought Beasley to Minnesota nearly two years ago.
Vanderbilt has been a revelation next to Towns, adding length, athleticism, rebounding ability, strong defense, and energy that the Wolves were sorely lacking. Virtually any lineup combination that includes Vanderbilt has a strong net rating, and head coach Chris Finch has noted many times how difficult it is to take their version of Dennis Rodman-lite off the floor.
But the Wolves are still a bit thin in the frontcourt, playing a combination of McDaniels, Taurean Prince, and Naz Reid at the 4 behind Vanderbilt. Adding a multi-dimensional player to the rotation who is best-suited to play the 4 would be a boon to the Wolves’ hopes to avoid the play-in in the West.
Vanderbilt could continue to start in a huge lineup, or he could move to the bench and still play heavy minutes alongside as one of the first players off the bench.
Let’s take a look at the idea of landing Detroit Pistons forward Jerami Grant.
Why Jerami Grant would be a fit for the Timberwolves
The Timberwolves have been interested in Jerami Grant for years. When he ended up with the Detroit Pistons after restricted free agency in the summer of 2020, the Wolves were one of the handful of other teams rumored to be seriously interested.
Grant has yet to turn 28 years old and has one year remaining on his contract following this season, so an acquisition won’t come on the cheap.
The Pistons continue to be one of the league’s worst teams, and Grant has been miscast as a lead scorer for a bad team. While his per-game scoring has gone up along with a skyrocketing usage rate, Grant’s offensive efficiency has taken a hit.
Between the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, which he split between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets, Grant shot 39.1 percent on 3-point attempts and 54.7 percent on 2-point tries. His effective field goal percentage was 56.2 percent across those two campaigns.
In 78 games across his one-plus seasons in Detroit, Grant has shot just 34.4 percent from deep and 46.7 percent inside the arc with an effective field goal percentage of 48.4 percent.
Grant has been asked to do much more on a weak Pistons roster, and he’s remained a solid defender throughout a slew of losses. Last season, his minutes were divided between the two forward spots. This year, he has spent much of his time on the floor at the 4 alongside young wings Saddiq Bey and Cade Cunningham.
Grant’s fit with the Wolves would be strong, as a bouncy, athletic forward who can guard 3s and 4s and theoretically add some of the scoring punch that Vanderbilt and McDaniels are missing.
The concern would be in the rebounding department; Grant is a below-average rebounder at the 4 and doesn’t play much better in that category at the 3, either. The Wolves have been one of the league’s worst defensive rebounding teams all season, and any minutes with Grant on the floor in place of Vanderbilt — or even McDaniels, for that matter — would be minutes in which Minnesota would surely be killed on the glass.
While the offensive ceiling of a lineup with Russell, Edwards, Grant, and Towns is astronomical, there would be real concerns about that unit even approaching being competitive on the glass.
There’s also the issue of Grant’s 3-point shooting. Can the Wolves take a chance on yet another player whose arrow is suddenly pointing downward from outside the arc? Russell, Prince, Beasley, and Patrick Beverley are all having career-worst shooting seasons. Grant is, too, and while a progression to the mean could be on tap, it’s a worrisome trend that now spans two seasons.
The biggest concern, of course, is related to the acquisition cost. Let’s take a look.
What would it take for the Timberwolves to acquire Jerami Grant?
It’s hard to say exactly what the Pistons are looking for, but what we do know is that they won’t have any shortage of suitors for Grant’s services.
According to Jake Fischer’s latest report for Bleacher Report, there are at least nine teams who have at least inquired about Grant, including the Timberwolves. Importantly, he also notes that the Pistons are looking for “two first-round picks or one first-round pick plus a high-upside young player.”
While the idea of a “high-upside young player” is quite subjective, a former five-star recruit and recent first-round pick who is already a plus defender couldn’t be too hard of a sell.
(This trade, along with all those that follow, all work financially according to the FanSpo Trade Machine.)
If you’re the Wolves, this price should not feel high. While McDaniels’ upside is probably still higher than what Grant currently provides, what are the chances that he actually becomes a better player? The Wolves own all of their future picks, plus some extra second-rounders, so trading the first-rounder doesn’t hurt that much — especially as a likely playoff team this year.
From the Pistons’ perspective, it wouldn’t be hard to talk yourself into McDaniels as a starting-caliber player and potentially strong complement to Cunningham for the next several years with the off-chance that he becomes a star.
Plus, a pick from the Wolves is likely thought to have more value than a pick from some of the other rumored suitors, including the Lakers, Celtics, Wizards, and so on.
Beasley would have the rest of this season as a starter in Detroit to recoup trade value and could be flipped in the offseason as either a valuable shooter with up to two years on his contract if a team option for 2022-23 is exercised, or as a decent bench piece with an expiring deal next summer if the option is not picked up.
If the Pistons would rather have two picks, then perhaps the deal can be centered around expiring contracts.
At that point, however, it’s hard to imagine that there wouldn’t be a more appealing offer out there somewhere else.
The expectation here is that Grant will end up elsewhere, and if the Wolves end up landing him, there will be a third team involved that would have more interest in Beasley’s services and be willing to ship out a pick for him.
The third team would likely be a fringe playoff team looking to add some offensive punch. Here’s a stab in the dark at what this could look like:
The Wolves get Grant and add backcourt depth with Holiday. Bryant is in the deal to match salaries but adds another big body as reinforcement behind Naz Reid in games against teams with big frontlines and/or when Towns is in foul trouble.
The Pistons get what they want in a young player with upside in McDaniels, plus an expiring deal with Prince and a pair of first-round picks. This is the best haul of any of the above trade options for the Pistons.
The Wizards are solidly in the play-in conversation in the Eastern Conference but are No. 27 in 3-point shooting percentage. While Beasley has struggled this season, he has a multi-year track record of knocking down 3-pointers at an impressive clip. Washington also gets a pair of second-round picks to compensate for their loss of Holiday, who has been an important rotation piece for them this season.
Of course, as Fischer notes in his article, Grant could ultimately be the deadline’s ‘grand prize’. If that’s truly the case, then someone will be willing to outbid the Wolves.
Until he’s actually traded, however, it’s worth considering how this could go down in the Timberwolves’ favor, and there are certainly a few paths to making it happen.