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NBA Draft 2015: Which Rookies Will Start Opening Night?

By Charles Rahrig V

Jun 25, 2015; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Jahlil Okafor (Duke) greets NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected as the number three overall pick to the Miami Heat in the first round of the 2015 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 25, 2015; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Jahlil Okafor (Duke) greets NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected as the number three overall pick to the Miami Heat in the first round of the 2015 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jun 25, 2015; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Jerian Grant (Notre Dame) is interviewed after being selected as the number nineteen overall pick to the Washington Wizards in the first round of the 2015 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 25, 2015; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Jerian Grant (Notre Dame) is interviewed after being selected as the number nineteen overall pick to the Washington Wizards in the first round of the 2015 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /

8. Jerian Grant, PG, New York Knicks

For all the heat that the New York Knicks took for taking project big man Kristaps Porzingis No. 4 overall, they might have quietly made one of the best moves during the NBA Draft when they traded for the rights to point guard Jerian Grant.

Grant, a four-year starter at Notre Dame, is one of the most polished players coming out of college and has an extremely high basketball IQ. With the Knicks needing help at all positions after an abysmal season and only having the aging Jose Calderon at point guard, the team needed to grab a floor general badly.

Well they got there guy in Grant, and he should be able to slide into the starting lineup from day one. Grant isn’t some 18-year-old project that needs a lot of seasoning. He’s a 22-year-old basketball player who is smart enough to run the complicated triangle system that Phil Jackson wants to run in New York.

In college he led his team in assists, and as a leader of the team, Notre Dame came so close to upsetting Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament. He has the NBA bloodline with his father, Harvey, and his uncle, Horace, playing in the league for several years.

He is a future leader at the point the team needs, and could come away as one of the steals of the draft, considering that the team sent struggling second year guard Tim Hardaway Jr. away for him.

The first pick in New York may have not been popular, but their second pick they came away with was an absolute home run of a pick, and for that Knicks fans should be excited that they will have their future starting point guard in the lineup on day one.

Next: Biggest Mistakes In NBA Draft History

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