Why Jerami Grant's Five Year $160,000,000 Contract Will Go Down as One of the Worst Signings in NBA History

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Jerami Grant just signed a five-year $160,000,000 deal which is the largest contract in NBA history for a non-All-Star player. While Grant has proven throughout his career that he can be a 20-point-per-game guy, he has never been good enough to be named an All-Star. He is certainly getting paid like one, however, and now the Trail Blazers are stuck with this contract as it is fully guaranteed. While this move was certainly a head-scratcher at the time, the one thing that made the contract less questionable was that it could have been the key difference between Damian Lillard staying and him requesting a trade. This has proven to be irrelevant as Damian Lillard requested a trade anyway and now the Blazers are stuck paying Jerami Grant while also shifting directions into a rebuild.

Now that Lillard will almost certainly be gone, Jerami Grant doesn’t have much of a purpose with Portland. Without Lillard on the roster, it makes sense for Portland to fully embrace the rebuild around Scoot Henderson and future young draft prospects. Jerami Grant is 29, however, and this will throw a wrench in their plans. Even though Grant is not worth the amount of money he is being paid he is still a solid player who will get you wins. Portland should be looking to lose, however, as they need more draft prospects to build around Scoot Henderson. The Blazers are going to be giving a large amount of their cap space to Grant who is going to be hurting their chances of competing for championships down the line. This contract will be a disaster for Portland and they likely already regret it after the Lillard trade request.