Report: Jerami Grant officially declines $9.3 million option for 2020-21

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.

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.