The team that stood out this season is the Denver Nuggets. These were the underdogs that nobody even expected to overcome 3-1 deficits twice this season, let alone make it to the Western Conference Finals. What’s even more surprising is that they had their conference finals contenders, LA Lakers, also rattled there for a while. However, this was as far as they could have come.

Now entering into the offseason, the Nuggets will be seen in a different light altogether, thanks to their stars Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic. On the other hand, their forward is expected to exit from the Nuggets.

Jerami Grant wants to enter free agency

The Nuggets recruited Grant in July 2019 in a draft-day trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Grand attracted a lot of attention through his performance in the first season with the Nuggets. The 26-year-old averaged 12 points and 3.5 assists. When Grant was acquired, he was expected to bring in defensive prowess, which ultimately showed in the Nuggets’ postseason.

When playing against the Clippers, he did a fine job in defending Kawhi Leonard and even ended up defending LeBron James against the Lakers. No other player could have provided such stability under so much pressure. However, now, Grant is expected to opt-out of the $9 million player option with the Nuggets and enter into free agency.

On the Yahoo Sports ‘Posted Up’ podcast (18:24) in June, Grant stated, “I’m definitely not leaning towards picking up the player option. Like you said, I feel like I definitely outplayed the $9M that I’m making each year right now. But at the same time… I’d love to come to a conclusion or something like that with Denver. It just depends on what we discuss and negotiate when the time comes.”

Will the Denver Nuggets want to keep Grant?

When Jerami was asked if he wanted to be a part of the Nuggets, he said, “I’m definitely looking forward to it.”

“We’ll see how it goes.”

With Paul Millsap’s imminent free-agency, the Nuggets would not want to let go of Grant either. The Nuggets have time and again signaled that they want Grant to be a part of their future. It’s just about finding the deal that fits.