NBA Playoffs: Winners and losers of the Conference Finals

Winner: Jerami Grant

Jerami Grant, the Denver Nuggets forward, wing, big-man mish mash has just made himself a whole lot of money and he deserves every dollar.

He scored 21 points in the Game 5 loss to the Lakers but was the primary option on LeBron all series (and Kawhi Leonard the series prior) and just averaged 11.6 points per playoff outing. He played big minutes, switched on defense, rebounded, and wasn’t afraid to shoot.

Grant will opt out of his $9.3 million player option this offseason according to Mike Singer of The Denver Post. The report goes on to say that teams expect the 26-year-old to make somewhere in the realm of $16 million per season.

I could add that Denver is also a loser with their best defender potentially pricing himself off the roster but it’ll be very interesting to see what he wants to do; does he want to stick with this young team that showed so much promise?

Paul Millsap and Mason Plumlee’s contracts come off the books at the end of this season, freeing up just north of $44 million but the team will have to either resign them or replace them if need be with that money too.

The other teams with real cap space this offseason like the Charlotte Hornets, Atlanta Hawks, or the Detroit Pistons among others could definitely offer him something in the $16 million range if they see him as a building block to their future.

Or even more enticing is the Miami Heat, who can free up enough space to offer him something juicy with Goran Dragic’s contract expiring this season. The Heat has made it very clear that they want to pursue Giannis Antetokounmpo the following offseason which means they won’t likely commit to a long-term deal with whoever they sign this summer. A one-year deal for Grant playing next to Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo is a scary defense.

It all comes down to what Grant wants and wherever he goes and whatever he gets, he has earned.