The Trail Blazers have offered Jerami Grant a contract extension worth $112.65M over four years, sources tell Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports.
The veteran forward has yet to accept the offer, and it doesn’t sound like he plans to in the future. As Fischer writes, there’s no indication that Grant wants out of Portland — quite the opposite — the reasoning is financial.
Four years and $112.65M is the maximum amount the Blazers can currently offer due to the limitations of veteran extensions. However, they hold his Bird Rights, so if he waits until free agency, Portland would be able to offer him more years and more money than any other team — up to $233M over five years.
According to Fischer, the “upper range” of that free agency figure “appears unrealistic.” It’s unclear how much money Grant would seek, but it seems pretty evident that it will be north of $28M annually, since that’s what the current offer amounts to.
Earlier this month, Grant spoke glowingly about his time in Portland and the team’s environment.
“I definitely like it here; love it here,” Grant told Jason Quick of The Athletic. “The guys have been very welcoming, it’s definitely a family environment, everybody is super cool, got good guys on the team, great organization — Joe, (head coach) Chauncey (Billups), everything. I’m definitely enjoying it here.”
When told that his comments didn’t paint the picture of a situation a player would want to leave, Grant laughed and replied, “I ain’t really plan on leaving.”
Through 46 games (35.7 MPG), Grant is averaging 21.2 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 2.4 APG, 0.9 SPG and 0.8 BPG. He’s also scoring more efficiently than ever before, posting a traditional slash line of .488/.424/.796 and a career-high .615 true shooting percentage.
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