Grant searching for ways to play to strengths
Grant searching for ways to play to his strengths in new role
Just when Jerami Grant seemed to have found his place in the Thunder lineup, the roster shifted, and his role changed again. Grant has played everything from small forward, to power forward to center in his career. But as primarily a backup center last season, Grant was able to up his production to 8.4 points per game and 14.9 points per 36 minutes. The latter was a career high mark.
At 6-foot-8, the small-ball center was versatile on defense, and he took 66.7 percent of his shots from less than 10 feet from the basket. But this year, Nerlens Noel’s addition to Oklahoma City has shifted Grant to the four.
Thunder coach Billy Donovan said after practice Tuesday that he thought there were opportunities for Grant to play to his strengths in his new role.
“Just watching some film and talking to him, there’s too much of him spacing where he can be cutting and diving and moving and setting screens and doing a little bit more,” Donovan said. “When he does that, it gets his playmaking into it. He’s a really unselfish player and a really good passer. The more he’s on the move, the better it is for our team.”
In the Thunder’s 131-120 loss to the Kings on Sunday, Grant took five 3-point shots and missed each one of them, including two corner threes.
“Depending on how far my man is off of me,” he said of how he decides whether to shoot or attack a closeout. “Figuring out the distance. I think the rhythm of the game will kind of tell me what I should do.”
With Noel shooting 80 percent from the floor, averaging six points and 5.7 rebounds per game, and serving as a bright spot on defense as a secondstring center, even adjusting rotations to get Grant increased minutes at center is unlikely at this point.
“It’s hard with Nerlens and Steven (Adams) there,” Donovan. “There may be some situations playing small that we can do that.”
Abrines remains out
Alex Abrines did not practice Tuesday, but is not in concussion protocol, Donovan said. Abrines left Sunday’s game in the second half after receiving an inadvertent elbow to the head from Noel.
His injury was originally identified as a mouth contusion, but Donovan said Tuesday that he was hit in the eye.
Ferguson stays late
Long after his teammates finished putting up extra shots after practice, Terrance Ferguson remained working on his shot from all over the floor. The 20-year-old has started in the Thunders’ first three games this season but has made just two shots in that span (13.3 percent from the field).
“To me that’s what you’re supposed to do,” Russell Westbrook said of young players like Ferguson and Hamidou Diallo staying after practice. “You have a gym, you have a job. Best job in the world: you come in, you get paid to do something you like to do. You should want to get better at it, and those guys do that consistently.”