New Trade Proposal Highlights How Blazers Can Maximize Jerami Grant's Contract

Is Portland's best player finally going to be on the move?

Mar 6, 2024; Portland, Oregon, USA; Portland Trail Blazers small forward Jerami Grant (9) shoots the ball against Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) during the second half at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports / Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

The Portland Trail Blazers' second-priciest player, 30-year-old Jerami Grant, hasn't made sense as a present roster addition for years.

A switchable 3-and-D combo forward, the 6-foot-7 Syracuse product is a win-now player trapped on a lose-now team. It's not clear that there's much urgency from Grant's end to be moved, however. After all, he did ditch the Denver Nuggets, where he was a better-shooting, poorer-defending Aaron Gordon, to join the perpetually bad Detroit Pistons as a free agent in 2020.

With the NBA now having agreed to a lucrative new television broadcasting rights deal, worth a projected $76 billion, the $29.8 million owed Grant next season (plus the four years and $132.4 million he's set to earn over the rest of his deal) is now longer quite the albatross salary it looked to be when he initially agreed to it last year.

Where should Grant be flipped? There is one, incredibly obvious, destination that has long been floated as a possibility.

Antonio Kozlow of Basketball Insiders gets into the specifics with a precise proposal to send Grant to his long-rumored destination, the Los Angeles Lakers.

In Kozlow's suggested deal, the Lakers would ship out point guard D’Angelo Russell's expiring $18.7 million contract, offense-averse combo forward Jarred Vanderbilt, 2023 second round draft pick Maxwell Lewis out of Pepperdine, and a 2029 first rounder. This would at least enable L.A. to hold on to one of its two movable future firsts. Vanderbilt missed much of 2023-24 due to injury issues and is fairly useless during the postseason because he's such a negative on offense. Russell is another regular season positive and postseason negative. Lewis didn't crack L.A.'s rotation, but is at least a buy-low prospect. The real prize is the draft pick.

In Grant, the Lakers would be gaining a major improvement in their perimeter defense, while also bolstering their 3-point shooting.

"Jerami Grant’s contract, though hefty, might make more sense in a different context, such as the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers, with an aging LeBron James still playing at an MVP level, need to capitalize on their championship window. Grant, known for his defensive versatility and improved [3-point] shooting, could slot in as an ideal third or fourth option behind LeBron and Anthony Davis," Kozlow writes.

Kozlow contends that the Blazers could subsequently flip Russell's contract again. If he stays rostered, Portland would have solid cap space in 2025. Vanderbilt, 25, could conceivably still grow with Portland's youth movement.

It's a deal that could behoove both sides. So why hasn't it happened yet? Most likely, the two sides are still haggling over the exact draft equity the Lakers would surrender. L.A. would also be short a starting point guard, and it's unclear just how much they can count on Gabe Vincent after he had something of a lost season during his first season with the squad.

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