Denver Nuggets Bench Unit Power Rankings: No. 2

The Denver Nuggets had a quiet 2019 offseason in which their only loss was backup forward Trey Lyles, who was coming off a career-low in total minutes played. Nuggets President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly replaced the little-used Lyles with perhaps the most underrated move of the offseason, Denver’s acquisition of combo forward Jerami Grant from the Oklahoma City Thunder.

This was a move that would’ve seemed impossible heading into the 2019 offseason considering how important Grant was to the Thunder on both sides of the ball. But following Oklahoma City’s massive Paul George and Russell Westbrook trades, they were looking for more ways to shed salary and move on from their current core. This is what opened up the possibility of a title contender like the Nuggets being able to snag Grant at a reasonable price.

Of course, the argument could be made that Grant should start next to Nikola Jokic in Denver, as he clearly is a great fit next to the Nugget star and is much younger than Millsap, who will be entering his 14th year in the league. But on the flip side, the Millsap-Jokic pairing had the highest Net Rating (+8.6) of any of the Nuggets most-used lineups.

So with the assumption that Grant will be coming off the bench, here’s a look at why we believe he’s the second-best player on the 2019-20 Denver Nuggets bench unit.

2018-19 Review:

The 2018-19 season was huge for Jerami Grant. In his 5th year in the NBA, Grant played a career-high 2612 regular-season minutes and also logged (a career-high) 176 postseason minutes, proving to be a crucial part of OKC’s winning formula.

Perhaps the biggest change in Grant’s game last season was his accuracy and aggression from the 3-point line. He has taken over 100 3-point shots every season of his career but last year was the first time he has shot over 200 3-point attempts and with surprisingly great results.

Grant shot 39.2 percent from the 3-point line in the 2018-19 season, a career-best by a wide margin. He maintained a great offensive rating (119 points per 100 possessions) despite seeing a gigantic drop in his free throw attempt rate (FTr).

As shown in the video clip earlier in this post, Grant’s 3-point shooting was helped by the fact that he became a great corner 3-point shooter. He took 51.5 percent of his 3-point shots from the corner, providing plenty of spacing for Westbrook’s adventurous forays to the rim.

The Denver Nuggets were second in the league in terms of percent of assisted 3-point field goal makes (88.3 percent) in the 2018-19 season while the OKC Thunder were 21st. Grant was still able to get off his 3-point shot despite the Thunder not possessing the most modern offense around and this especially bodes well for his Nuggets tenure.

It took us his long to get to Grant’s defense, as it is the most obvious and clear-cut strength of his. Per Basketball-Reference, Grant has posted a 108 defensive rating every season of his career but one (in which he had a 106 DRtg). The remarkable consistency in the numbers is backed up from what you see on tape.

Grant has a remarkable 7-foot-2.5 wingspan and he uses that advantage to wreak havoc on opposing offenses. He led the Thunder in blocks and was sixth on the team in steals. He kept up that pressure in the 2019 postseason, where he averaged a combined 2.6 steals + blocks.

Despite Grant’s solid play, the Thunder lost in five games to the Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference First Round. But it was still quite a showing for Grant as he led the Thunder in offensive rating in the playoffs, an impressive 118 points per 100 possessions.

2019-20 Outlook:

Without the presence of Trey Lyles on the roster, Grant is the clear-cut backup power forward to Millsap. This is what makes the Nuggets rotation so strong in 2019-20. Grant started a career-high 77 games in 2018-19 and turned in arguably the best season of his career. Now he will be facing off against second units, a tantalizing possibility for Denver.

The Nuggets were only a slightly better 3-point shooting team than the Thunder in 2019 but sharing minutes with the likes of Jamal Murray (36.7 percent 3-point shooter), Malik Beasley (40.2 percent) and Monte Morris (41.4 percent) will give Grant more space to work with than he had in OKC.

Grant’s career-high 35.6 percent 3-point attempt rate was a result of him doing what he needed to to help his team. But as a result of this, we saw his free throw rate dip dramatically to 26.9 percent, the lowest of his career by far.

If Grant—as we expect—plays in lineups with Jokic and/or Mason Plumlee, two of the better passing big men in the league, his free throw rate will get back to its normal state as he starts to utilize off-ball cuts more. Cuts made up 10.6 percent of Grant’s offense in 2018-19 and he scored 1.32 points per possession, good for the 58th percentile. This figure is sure to increase with the pass-happy Nuggets (2nd in the league in assist rate in 2019) and will make Grant a more well-rounded player, who will likely be in Denver for the long haul.

Key statistic: 161 combined steals + blocks

In the 2018-19 season, Grant racked up 61 steals and 100 blocks. If this for some reason this doesn’t sound impressive to you, keep in mind that only nine players—including league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert—accomplished this feat last season.

Denver Nuggets head coach Mike Malone will have some interesting lineup combinations at his disposal this upcoming season and several of them could be defense-first lineups featuring Torrey Craig, Paul Millsap and Grant sharing minutes on the floor together.

Working through the process of figuring out what lineups will work best with Grant will be thrilling for Malone seeing as the Nuggets were a top-10 defense last season and now have a new, higher defensive ceiling.