Fisher shows support for Grant and I thought this and an older article kind of put things in perspective for Grant's development so far. I hope he's starting to figure things out and Fish figuring out how he can help Grant to get going.
Knicks coach Derek Fisher says Jerian Grant has ‘tools necessary’ to be ‘really good’
BY STEFAN BONDY NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, January 5, 2016, 5:00 PM ATLANTA — Derek Fisher gave his rookie point guard a vote of confidence, even though Jerian Grant has struggled and played sparingly after being picked 19th overall.
Many thought Grant, 23, would make an immediate impact in the NBA after playing four years at Notre Dame, but it has been the younger, less experienced rookie — Kristaps Porzingis — who has made an easier adjustment into the NBA. Grant’s production dipped in December to the point he was benched for three entire games. His 24 minutes in Sunday’s win over Atlanta was the most he played since Nov. 15.
“He has all of tools necessary to be a really good player for us going forward," Fisher said. "He can handle the ball. When he’s under control, he’s making good decisions with the ball. I think he can shoot better than he can shoot sometimes. And he has good size, good hands, defensively. There’s a lot of good things about him. That’s why he’s here, and we believe in him. …We still believe in who he is. We’re still invested in him. We like his future."
The triangle is a difficult offense for a point guard accustomed to having the ball in his hands, but Fisher said that goes beyond the system.
“If you come from being a point guard and a leader on a college team and then you go to a pro team, you might be the smallest guy on the totem pole in terms of whose locker room it is, whose ego is the biggest, who you have to kind of satisfy out there in the game and making sure gets touches. It’s not your ball to play with and do whatever you want to do with it. So that’s the biggest adjustment for young guards is understanding they’re not the most important guy anymore.
Jerian Grant, struggling in the Knicks' triangle, acknowledges he 'has to figure out a different way to play'
BY STEFAN BONDY NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Friday, December 18, 2015, 5:25 PM PHILADELPHIA – Jerian Grant’s learning curve wasn’t supposed to be so steep. He was a four-year NCAA player with an uncle who served many years under Phil Jackson. But as the rookie discovered more than a quarter into the season, the triangle is not such a comforting system for a point guard accustomed to pick-and-rolls.
Heading into Friday against the Sixers, Grant played a combined three minutes in the previous three games while logging two DNPs. He had been replaced in the rotation by Sasha Vujacic, as that promising start quickly turned into an extended struggle.
Vujacic and Langston Galloway had been eating up the guard reserve minutes.
“It’s tough. You have to figure out a different way to play,” Grant, who was drafted 19th overall after averaging 17 points and 6.6 assists as an All-American senior at Notre Dame, told the Daily News. “Obviously coming in, you’re not going to have the ball in your hands as much. When that’s been your game to kind of create with the ball in your hands off ball screens and such, it’s an adjustment to find other ways to affect the game.”
As New York’s primary point guard last season, Shane Larkin lamented about the lack of pick-and-rolls in the triangle, hampering his play. With all of Jackson’s great teams and championships, he coached only one point guard to an All-Star appearance, and it was borderline from B.J. Armstrong.
Knicks rookie Jerian Grant is a guard out of his comfort zone in Phil Jackson's 'triangle' offense.
The position, despite its emphasis in today’s NBA, was always somewhat diminished in the triangle. As Jackson wrote in his book, “one of the things that’s pretty obvious (about my coaching career) is that I never had to fight to get a dominant point guard. Because once you do that, defenses can align themselves against that one guy. You can pressure the point guard high on the floor and move the ball away from whomever you want to shut down. That was always my defensive philosophy against people like Isiah Thomas and John Stockton.”
Grant has recognized the difference from his expectations. The Knicks, meanwhile, are reportedly feeling out the trade market for another guard. Jamal Crawford (Clippers), Brandon Jennings (Pistons), Ty Lawson (Nuggets) and Kevin Martin (T-Wolves) are among those believed to be available.
“For sure, it’s a lot different. As a point guard coming into the league you think it’s just going to be a bunch of ball screens for you but in this offense, that’s not what (the triangle) is,” Grant said. “It’s more of getting people lined up and just kind of cutting and spotting up for jump shots. So it’s just an adjustment where I can use my game to be effective.”
The main obstacle for Grant is that he’s not a good jump shooter, hitting just 38 percent of all his attempts heading into Friday and 19 percent from beyond the arc. What he brings uniquely to this roster, though, is an ability to drive past his defender and create from his athleticism.
1/5/2016 9:30 PM