Jerian Grant embraces lockdown defender role, compares EuroLeague's top guards / News - Basketnews.com

Jerian Grant describes the process of his transformation into one of the EuroLeague's top defenders and the way he's been able to neutralize Shane Larkin and Mike James. The guard of Panathinaikos also reflects on his team's progress.

Credit: Panagiotis Moschandreou/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images Credit Panagiotis Moschandreou/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

Over just nine days,Jerian Grant pulled off a string of defensive miracles.

Player of the Game EFF 42 Mathias Lessort Points 23 Accuracy 9-10 Rebounds 9 Assists 5

For starters, he kept Markus Howard to a 9-point tally when Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens visited Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz. Then, he forced Anadolu Efes' Shane Larkin to a season-low 9 points before leaving AS Monaco's Mike James scoreless in the first half of the Greens' outing against the Roca Team last Thursday night.

Overall, three of the league's most competent ballers combined for 29 points on 10/32 from the field, 9 assists, and 10 turnovers. Panathinaikos won 2 out of 3 of those games, but Grant had proven his worth as a top-notch defender. It was not by accident that the 31-year-old guard topped BasketNews' recent Mid-Season Awards survey in the Best Defender category.

According to the numbers by 3StepsBasket, Panathinaikos have a defensive rating of 109.7 points per 100 possessions, which is 3rd-best among all EuroLeague teams. However, with Grant on the court, this number gets even lower to 107.9 points per 100 possessions, which is better than 89% of all active EuroLeague players.

"Just going out there and playing hard," Grant describes the mindset that has turned him into a lockdown defender. "We have a great scouting report, and our team is doing it together. It's not just me out there one-on-one, it's the whole team playing defense."

In PAO's 88-63 hammering of AS Monaco, coach Ergin Ataman decided to fend off Mike James with an aggressive hedge out on his pick-and-roll to get the ball out of his hands. All the inside players were ready to rotate to cover James' first pass, while Monaco players were always surrounded by a forest of hands that allowed them little, if any, room to move.

Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens / Schedule

Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens Anadolu Efes Istanbul83-76 Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens AS Monaco88-63 Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade01-1919:15

"It's not like I have enough room to do much,"James told BasketNewsafter the contest.

"I have to go quick, and if I do, I could get into trouble and turn it over. I assume that everyone's going to trap me, and I just try to be quick in everything I do and create contact," he admitted.

And despite James' claims about Grant deploying mostly illicit methods to get the job done, Monaco's star player couldn't help but acknowledge his opponent's prowess.

Credit Stefanos Kyriazis/NurPhoto via Getty Images

"Obviously, he's a good defender," he pointed out. "He moves his feet well, he's athletic, he's got long arms, and he has good anticipation."

"But they didn't leave him on an island when he did make mistakes for me to take advantage of as much as I possibly could have," James added.

Also, despite James' claims about not being able to engage in one-on-one showdowns with Grant, the latter overpowered the former with the help of his teammates to such an extent that the gifted guardwent scoreless on 7 out of a total of 10 iso situationswhen the two faced off. It might look peculiar, but the EuroLeague's top isolation player was reduced to some garbage-time points for the better part of a game that broke open in the first quarter.

"We started the game with fantastic defense, especially against Mike James," Ataman concurred in the postgame presser.

"Actually, it wasn't difficult for us to prepare [for] this game because we had the same strategy as two days ago against Efes and Larkin. Jerian Grant stopped Larkin and now James, of course, with the help of our bigs who tried to trap him," the Turkish coach argued.

Grant had to follow James to prevent his signature step-back jump shot and send him to the paint, where the likes of Dinos Mitoglou, Juancho Hernangomez, Mathias Lessort, and Kostas Antetokounmpo would render his scoring appetite almost redundant.

"We know that Mike is their guy," Grant said. "When he has the ball, all eyes are on him. We did a great job of making it hard for him."

Even if James did miss some shots he would have normally made, Grant had done his homework. Describing the process of preparing for games against Europe's most talented scorers, the 2023 EuroCup MVP names the useful conclusion he draws from the scouting report.

"I know that the most important thing is to make it hard for them to catch the ball. That's the main thing I focus on. If you can just make them take tough shots, you've got to live with it," he pointed out.

Grant remarked that both Shane Larkin and Mike James "know how to put that ball in the basket, and it's hard to stop them."

Those two players are two of the best guards in the EuroLeague. But who has been the most difficult opponent to face?

"It's tough to say. Shane has his pros in being really quick and able to shoot the ball. But Mike is so shifty and aggressive."

Credit Tolga Adanali/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

Despite PAO racking up their biggest win since October 2021, when they scattered Efes 95-69 at OAKA, Grant isn't sure the win over Monaco was combined with the Greens' best performance in the 2023-24 season.

"I have to go back and look," he uttered, somewhat reserved.

"But we're definitely in the rhythm right now, playing really well," he conceded. "As the season goes on, we'll get to know each other a lot more, knowing where people like the ball and how to read each other defensively. I think we've started to do that."

For a player who struggled to find his role and position at EA7 Emporio Armani Milan and was regarded as anything but a safe bet before the current campaign tipped off, buying into Ataman's philosophy and becoming a defensive stopper paved the way for brighter days - and nights - at the EuroLeague level.

"I had to figure out a way to get minutes and be on the court," Grant admitted. "Our team has a lot of scorers and guys who can do a lot of things. But defensively is one of the places I thought I could step up."

And what a step up this has been.

It will be interesting to see how Grant will fare against Partizan's Kevin Punter next week in another challenging task. But for now, he can relish his late-career turn that makes him place less emphasis on scoring or creating rather than making sure the opponent's best scorer has an off night.

"I'm a player who does what the team needs," he stereotypically observed.

"Obviously, this year, I'm starting to see my role as being that defender that guards the other team's best guard. And I think I'm going to continue to do it throughout the season. I like it so far."

If being a star in one's role is a virtue in its own right, Grant can lay claim to succinctly encapsulating Panathinaikos' dreams and aspirations this season.

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