This Jerami Grant to the Nuggets trade killed me. @Clutch can vouch for this, but literally the night before the trade I was talking to him about the possibility of Grant being available since OKC could be selling off parts. Grant would have been a perfect fit in Houston and is EXACTLY what this team needs. Nuggets just give up a likely late 1st round pick to get him. Makes me mad.
You can blame Tillman for ducking the tax, but that has nothing to do with this particular transaction. Rocket's didn't stand a chance here. This was a dump into a trade exception. It allowed the Thunder to not take back any salary and save $40M. The pick is just to save face.
I said this in the other thread for general NBA news (really where this one should be) but can someone tell me when we were one Jerami Grant away from beating the Warriors? I love the idea of long athletic guys on this team just as much as the next guy but he was a worse rebounder and defensive player than PJ Tucker despite being significantly taller. Again, I like the idea in theory but Grant isn't really an upgrade over what we already have. Everyone is chomping at the bit for Houston to make a big move and meanwhile we are also b****ing because Houston didn't make a complete lateral move....which by the way - I don't believe Grant could have come to Houston anyway because it was a straight salary dump that fit into a trade exception Denver had that was expiring soon. ...don't see what the fuss is that we missed out on a guy who wasn't available to us anyway(because we would have to send back salary), and who wouldn't have really moved the needle for us in any way.
But we’d still have to send salary back to OKC . OKC didn’t want anything back. They need to duck the tax and even with the nuggets trade they still need to dump one more player
Grant was under contract and was traded. You can't use the MLE to trade for a player already under contract. MLE is only for signing free agents. Even if you were allowed to use the MLE in trades, he makes too much. Grant makes $9.35M which is more than the full non taxpayer MLE ($9.258M). There was no way for the Rockets to take on Grant and not send salary out.
Jerami Grant was not a free agent, so the Rockets could not use the remainder of their MLE on him. They needed a large enough trade exception to send the Thunder, and they do not have one. Denver enabled Oklahoma City to save $39 million by absorbing Grant’s one-year contract into a trade exception. The Rockets did not have the ability to do that.
Like others have noted, he would have been perfect. We likely would have offered a first + Shump S&T. I think the Nuggets had a big TPE from the Gallo trade, which allowed them to completely absorb his salary AND send out a first. Only way we could have beat that is sending a first with Shump to a 3rd team, and then a first to OKC. 2 first for an expiring player is very risky so it's understandable that we didn't get it done.
And why would his contract costs Tilman? Because Morey constructed a team with two max contacts and o my one that plays st s star level, with no salary left to sign anyone if significance. Grant going to the Nuggets is an example of Morey’s inept ability to make deals with the salary situation