I've always liked Quentin Grimes. He's athletic and smart, and when he broke out as the fifth starter for the cool-as-hell 2022–23 Knicks, he did so by defending the point of attack with ragged intensity and taking advantage of the opportunities created for him by Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle. Like a plant thriving in low-light conditions, he was a master of fitting into the Knicks' scheme without ever disrupting things.
The bummer of Grimes's career is that his modularity and scant caloric demands, the very traits that made him fit in so well with New York, also made him fit in everywhere else. He has played for four teams in his four professional seasons: The Clippers traded him for Keon Johnson on draft night, the Knicks traded him for Bojan Bogdanovic at the deadline last year, the Pistons traded him for Tim Hardaway Jr. last offseason, and the Mavericks just traded him to Philadelphia for Caleb Martin a few weeks ago. Grimes is a restricted free agent after this season, so it's easy to imagine him wearing his fifth NBA uniform next fall. Every step of the way, Grimes has played the same role, starting about one-third of the time and playing about 25 minutes per game, because every previous team he's been on had either a Luka Doncic knockoff or the man himself to run things.
But Philadelphia has no such player, and Grimes has spent the past six weeks showing off what he can do if he has the the runway to lead an offense. He has been legitimately great at it, scoring 21.4 points per game with great efficiency and posting career-best numbers across the board. "Everybody knows me as 3-and-D," Grimes said after that game. "But since my time in Dallas, I’m just showing I can do way more with the ball in my hands." He scorched the Warriors for a career-high 44 points on 24 shots (hilariously, he shot 2-for-8 from the line) on the first day of March in a surprising win, then bested that career high on Monday night in a really stupid loss in his hometown of Houston. Grimes posted a burly line of 46 points and 13 boards, and a good deal of his scoring was self-created, best-player stuff, like semi-contested pull-ups and one-on-one drives to the hoop. It was cool as hell, even if the Sixers lost 144-137 in overtime.
The funniest and most appetizing aspect of Grimes's explosive March is that it epitomizes the horrific failings of this season's two most accursed teams, simultaneously. The Sixers are wretched ass this season, due to both the opaque shreddedness of Joel Embiid's knee tendons as well as the clock striking midnight and Paul George turning back into a pumpkin, each of which indict the hubris of the loathsome Daryl Morey. Making Philly's cursed season and Grimes's redemptive role within said season even funnier, the Sixers only get to keep their draft pick if it falls within the top six selections. They're currently tied for the fifth draft slot, with Toronto trailing by half a game in that upside-down race, so the Sixers' fate will come at the whim of the ping-pong gods. With every great performance, Grimes both increases the chances of Oklahoma City inheriting the seventh pick and also increases the amount of money he'll make this offseason. The former is not his problem, and I am charmed by a trade that could turn out to have hurt both teams while helping a player's career in the process.
As for the other team in that trade, Dallas has so few healthy players and so little roster-building capacity that it finds itself in the position of potentially having to forfeit games, while Philly's front office only wishes the Sixers could do so. Martin, another wandering rōnin of a basketball player currently suiting up for his fourth team, has played five games and scored 23 total points for the Mavericks, who are probably going to make the play-in in the good conference. That team could desperately use Grimes, though GM Nico Harrison saw him as more of a Dante Exum bench platoon guy than the primary initiator he is now, so he's stuck with a worse player who is also hurt instead of a promising young guard.
With every great game, Grimes hurts both of this NBA season's most clown-ass GMs, which I think is beautiful. The funniest possible ending here would have Grimes delivering Oklahoma City the seventh pick, then somehow winding up there in free agency, and while that's unlikely, Grimes has already provided enough comedy for everyone to enjoy.
