Chicago Bulls Season in Review: Jerian Grant
My favorite Bull had flashes when handed the reins to the offense.
Jerian Grant:
Jerian Grant is a gamer….but I’ve told you that before. When it was time to sign up for player evaluations here at Bulls Confidential, I could not help but select the player who has been one of my favorites dating back to “the dunk” that lives on forever in Notre Dame history. Grant’s career has gotten off to a most unfortunate start. He was barely given a chance his rookie year in New York before being traded to Chicago for — what he figured to be — a backup point guard job in his second season. Grant’s up-and-down season mirrored the season of the organization as a whole, but he does have a solid foundation to build on for next year.
Season Recap:
Recapping Grant’s season is hard for me. If you look at his splits, it is clear that he improved as the season wore on. He played better than expected, so he slowly got more minutes. As a starter, he shot 41.5 percent from 3-point range, a mark that would’ve made him far and away the best outside shooter on the team. Grant’s momentum lifted him to play quite well over the final four games of the season. All of those games had huge playoff implications for Chicago. All signs pointed towards Grant as the clear backup point guard and then — BAM! — after that stellar four-game stretch in April, Hoiberg decided to play him a total of 52-minutes over a grueling six-game playoff series.
Season Highlight:
I selfishly wanted to choose Grant’s game-winner from his stint in the NBA D-League because through an internship, I actually had the pleasure of doing color commentary for that game. It was a great moment in an otherwise lackluster inaugural season for the Windy City Bulls and Grant. But his domination of the D-League (27 points and 8 assists per game over two games) was more evidence of how bizarre the decision to send him down was in the first place.
Grant’s actual season highlight came on April 10th against the Orlando Magic. In a game the Bulls needed to win to make the playoffs, Grant dropped a double-double that featured 17 points, 11 assists, two steals and no turnovers. The poise Grant played with that night was eerie because it seemed like had transformed into Rajon Rondo overnight. He helped force 16 Orlando turnovers with his ability to get into passing lanes quickly, and he pretty much had a hand in all of Robin Lopez’s team-leading 18 points that evening. April 10th was the first time Grant appeared the clear-cut option for backup point guard.
Season Lowlight:
Grant’s best month of the the season came in April right before the start of the postseason. In five games he averaged 10.4 points and 5.0 assists per game on 52.6 percent shooting. After helping the Bulls secure a playoff berth it definitely seemed reasonable to expect Grant to get decent run in the postseason.
Instead this is how Fred Hoiberg distributed Grant’s playoff minutes in games one through six respectively: 21, 6, 15, 5, 0, and 5. Hoiberg somehow managed to play Grant less as the series wore on, before dropping him out of the rotation completely. He was somehow convinced that Anthony Morrow would be a better option in the rotation. My head hurts.
Looking Forward:
Grant is under contract until a team option comes up in 2018. Heading into next season he figures to have the inside track to the backup point guard spot yet again, but there is no telling with Hoiberg’s rotations. He will have the Summer League to look forward to, where he will be joining a squad looking to go for back-to-back championships. As a Bull, Grant shot 36 percent on 134 3-point attempts. That alone is enough to keep him in the rotation moving forward.
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