Free agency has officially begun for the Denver Nuggets with Jerami Grant declining his player option.
In a move that was widely expected, 26-year-old forward Jerami Grant has officially declined his player option for the 2020-21 season (per Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes). Grant, who signed a three-year, $27.3 million contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2018, was traded to the Denver Nuggets in the 2019 offseason.
Yahoo Sources: Denver Nuggets forward Jerami Grant is declining his $9.3 million player option for the 2020-21 season to become an unrestricted free agent.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) November 16, 2020
After stepping up his play over the last two seasons, Grant is exploring the market in hopes of securing a more lucrative contract than the one he signed with the Thunder.
There’s rumored to be significant mutual interest between Grant and the Nuggets on reaching a new deal, as Denver relied upon Grant as a versatile primary defender in the 2020 NBA Playoffs and he more than delivered. In fact, Grant was undoubtedly the team’s third-best player last postseason.
Averaging 12.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, 0.8 blocks and 0.7 steals per game while shooting 38.9% from three in the regular season, Grant averaged 11.6 points, 3.3 rebounds, 0.8 blocks and 0.6 steals per game while shooting 32.6% from three in the playoffs last year.
His perimeter shooting was nowhere near efficient but Grant found different ways to get the ball in the basket while taking a greater defensive responsibility and still managing to remain consistent with his box production. Although a role player in Denver and someone that can eventually replaced if unable to come to terms with the Nuggets, his dependability and two-way impact would be missed.
Several teams are expected to show interest in Grant, and rightly so. However, Denver is still confident that they can re-sign him this offseason, per the Denver Post’s Mike Singer.