Quentin Grimes has been a revelation since joining the Sixers at the trade deadline, but his ascension does present the front office with a few good problems.
Quentin Grimes played in 215 regular-season NBA games before joining the Sixers. He scored 30-plus points twice.
He’s played in 11 games here since being traded by the Dallas Mavericks. Tuesday was his third 30-point game as a Sixer.
Suffice it to say, while it was only the second-worst trade Nico Harrison has made over the last few months, it’s another one that will make Mavs fans sick.
But for the Sixers, it presents an interesting dilemma. Part of the reason why Dallas moved on from Grimes is his pending restricted free agency. With each impressive performance from Grimes, the price seemingly goes up for the Sixers. This could lead to difficulty for the Sixers’ front office, but it might present good problems for Nick Nurse.
The season has been as miserable and cursed as any season in Sixers history. The few bright spots have been beacons — Guerschon Yabusele’s NBA return, Jared McCain running away with Rookie of the Year before he got hurt, Justin Edwards going undrafted but thriving with his hometown team, Kelly Oubre, Jr. continuing to resurrect his career and play his ass off every night. If those guys have been bright spots, Grimes has been the freaking sun since arriving in Philly.
The 24-year-old has been a revelation. In 11 games with a mangled roster, he’s averaged 17.7 points per game while shooting a tidy 52.4% from the field and 38.2% from three. He’s also averaged 3.3 assists, a number that crushes his career high. Known as a 3-and-D archetype, Grimes is showing he can be a whole lot more than that.
When Daryl Morey made the trade, he did so with the idea that Grimes would be a piece for the future. With the Texas native being a restricted free agent and few teams having the necessary cap space to give him an offer sheet, the Sixers are in a great place to re-sign him. How much he commands could force difficult decisions elsewhere on the roster.
As our Bryan Toporek recently wrote, signing Grimes could impact the team’s ability to re-sign Yabusele and Oubre. Of the three, Grimes has to be the priority given his performance, fit and the team’s desire to get younger and more dynamic. If it comes down to a choice between Yabusele or Oubre, that would be an unenviable position.
The guess here is the team would prioritize Yabusele. That’s not a knock on Oubre. It’s a shame the athletic wing hasn’t gotten a shot to play with the ideal version of the Sixers. At the beginning of last season, Oubre played off Joel Embiid so well while the then-reigning MVP was looking like a world destroyer. The problem is he could be redundant with Grimes, while Yabusele is such a uniquely perfect fit for the Sixers with his ability to play the four and five.
If the Sixers can somehow retain all three, Nurse’s rotation is potentially intriguing.
A starting five of Tyrese Maxey, Grimes, Oubre, Paul George and Embiid could be formidable, given health … though that’s not even close to a given. Then off the bench, you’ve got McCain, Edwards and Yabusele. That’s a strong top eight. Sprinkle in a big man combo of Andre Drummond (who’ll likely be back given his player option) and Adem Bona, plus guys like Jared Butler and Ricky Council IV, and you have solid depth. Plus, the team could potentially add two rookies with a high first-round pick (fingers crossed) and a premium second-rounder (also acquired in the trade with the Mavericks).
That’s 14 players — and we all know Morey’s preference is to leave the 15th roster spot to start the season for flexibility. If it went down like that, it would make for a pretty boring free agency period. Then again, the Sixers aren’t exactly celebrating their exciting 2024 offseason at the current moment.
While the Sixers look like they have little recourse but to run it back with Embiid and George, having Grimes under contract would be a big boon for any type of pivot. All of Maxey, Grimes, McCain, Edwards, Butler, Council and Bona are currently under 25. Plus, the possible addition of two rookies, as mentioned. That’s a great starting point if the Sixers look to get off the bloated contracts of their aging and oft-injured stars.
If it proves to be too difficult to retain Oubre and their first-rounder conveys to the Thunder, things would definitely get trickier. Still, the solid framework of a roster would be in place well before July. And though Morey has seemingly whiffed on a couple of big swings, the team’s front office has crushed it on the margins. The scouting department will just have to get to work identifying the next Oubre or Yabusele.
Of course, trading for another Quentin Grimes wouldn’t be the worst outcome either.