Jerami Grant did play SF last year. Winslow & Hart did all the PF trench work. Later in the season after Hart got traded & Winslow on IR, Grant was flopping around ridiculously on defense every game, playing pretend Power Forward.
I literally said its not just forwards - its our shitty guard defense. Gordon is a better defender than Grant - and even if someone disagrees, well he has a much better defensive guard starting in KCP than any of the Blazers quad guard group. Bruce Brown played a lot at forward and was excellent defensively. Herb Jones is an exceptional defender. Wiggins is very good. Kawhi and PG13 while now getting older have been great defenders. Durant has been a very good defender. I'm not really sure the point of your list - if anything this proves to me the Blazers suck defensively and need much better options on the roster.
As an aside, I’ve been trying to figure out what your handle was before the current one. Care to shed a little light?
I saw Grant do an excellent job one-on-one defending Jayson Tatum then score the winning basket against Tatum on the other end (when he was with the Pistons). Don't know what position Tatum plays, but Grant can definitely guard the Tatums of the NBA.
In this game of the Pistons versus the Boston Celtics which the Pistons won, I see Jerami Grant playing with the front court of Saddiq Bay and Beef Stew. I am assuming Grant is playing the small forward position here. so I disagree that Jerami Grant cannot play the small forward position. Pretty good highlights for Jeremi. They show his scoring versatility. I'll try to find a defensive stop which is not included in this video.
Fast forward to 9:40 in this video. Grant is playing SF. Tatum is playing SF. Grant is defending one-on-one Tatum for the final shot attempt of the game, which is missed by Tatum.
The only stupid question regarding Grant is the one our front office will ask him to sign his massive contract
Grant defended several PG's last year. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but Billups obviously thought he could stay in front of guys better than Dame/Ant. It really isn't fair rating anybody's defensive ability that starts at one of the forward spots with Dame/Ant because they usually are forced into a mismatch due to Dame/Ant's inability to even slow down any opponents guards. Plus, trying to cover off the ball alongside Dame/Ant will skew anybody's defensive stats (which are very misleading in the first place) since they'll have to be ready to help all the time.
That really isn't very good defense. It's adequate at best. However, the real question is who is better at guarding the SF on the Blazer's roster? I think Grant is the most capable option available... so even if his defense is adequate - it is still an upgrade to what Portland has been throwing out there.
Grant was used poorly by Billups as a point-of-attack defender, which was a bad idea. He has the length to bother smaller players, but isn't good at navigating screens. And if Grant is out on the perimeter, who is taking his place where he'd normally/should be?
