NBA Draft results 2015: Jerian Grant picked by Wizards, traded to Knicks
The four-year senior out of Notre Dame has been selected.
Notre Dame point guard Jerian Grant, one of the top seniors in this year's class, has been selected by the Atlanta Hawks then traded to the New York Knicks with the No. 19 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. He's the second four-year senior off the board after Wisconsin's Frank Kaminsky.
The Hawks received the No. 19 pick from the Washington Wizards in a separate trade earlier on Thursday. New York will send shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr. to Atlanta in exchange for the pick.
Grant arrived at Notre Dame as a four-star recruit out of Maryland and immediately made an impact as a freshman, averaging 12.3 points and five assists per game. By his senior year, he was one of the best players in the country. He led the Fighting Irish to the Elite Eight before an epic showdown against top-ranked Kentucky ended their season.
That NCAA Tournament run helped solidify Grant as one of the best players in college basketball, and now he'll try to translate that success to the next level. All of the tools seem to be there. He just needs to improve his shot -- 32 percent from downtown won't cut it -- and show he can score consistently at the next level.
Seth Rosenthal of Posting and Toasting, SB Nation's Knicks blog, loves the swap of Hardaway Jr. for Grant:
Jerian Grant is a big, talented, experienced guard who can do all kinds of things. I don't know him that well beyond watching him in the tournament, but I like him at 19, and I like him a LOT better than Tim Hardaway Jr. I would have been happy trading Hardaway for the 60th pick, for real. This feels like an excellent trade right now.
Grant knows how to score, and the Knicks could use him to score immediately. He's developed physically, too. He's 23 years old already, and he's one of the oldest players in this year's draft.
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