The numbers are startling: 32.6 factors, 5.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists over his final 5 video games.
You would be forgiven in the event you thought that was from MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and never a seldom-used participant moved earlier than the Feb. 6 commerce deadline.
These numbers belong to Quentin Grimes, who has taken Philadelphia by storm since his arrival a month and a half in the past. The 6-foot-5 taking pictures guard has made absolutely the most of his elevated alternative with the Sixers, as Joel Embiid, Paul George and standout rookie Jared McCain are out for the rest of season with accidents.
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Grimes is certainly benefiting from the scenario as head coach Nick Nurse wants somebody — anybody! — to place up numbers on a night-to-night foundation.
However calling Grimes merely a good participant on a nasty crew is doing him a disservice for a mess of causes.
Firstly, Grimes hasn’t simply had 5 good video games. As a Sixer, the 24-year-old has averaged 23.1 factors, together with a pair of 40-point performances, and carried out so on excessive effectivity.
Grimes is hitting 51% of his whole photographs, together with 39.3% on 3-pointers, and is primarily scoring off his personal accord. Solely 36.5% of his 2-pointers have been assisted, and he is created 27.1% of his personal made 3-pointers since coming over from Dallas.
Grimes is dealing with the ball greater than ever and is confidently taking pull-up triples, driving to the rim and hitting mid-range pull-ups off the bounce to current a devastatingly good all-around scoring contact.
One could be inclined to surprise if that is only a scorching streak, particularly as Grimes has been routinely reserved for spot-up duties over the course of his profession.
If he had been producing at a decrease charge, it would be simpler to brush his efforts apart. However for Grimes to not solely keep a excessive output, however add substantial effectivity behind that quantity — all whereas breaking out parts of his sport we have by no means seen earlier than — then it is honest to say there could be extra to him than we thought.
Grimes is not a lock to grow to be a year-to-year 20-point scorer. That should not be the takeaway from what he is at present doing. The takeaway ought to be that his sport consists of greater than what groups believed it did, and he is confirmed himself able to scaling his hidden skills up to a degree the place groups can not justify solely utilizing him as a spot-up man.
Basically, our notion of Grimes now wants to vary based mostly on what he is carried out in Philadelphia, even when he will not be capable to duplicate this actual manufacturing sooner or later.
How did Grimes get right here? Nicely, it begins with the Dallas Mavericks sending him out for a worse return, making the Grimes commerce the uncomfortable sequel to the Lakers’ deal that also has Dallas followers reconsidering their fandom.
In keeping with Yahoo Sports activities NBA senior analyst Kevin O’Connor, Grimes insinuated he needed to go away Dallas after the Luka Dončić commerce. The Mavericks fulfilled his want, however maybe they should not have.
Grimes was already enjoying at a excessive degree within the position he’d been given, because the prototypical 3&D wing subsequent to Dončić and Kyrie Irving. These gamers aren’t at all times straightforward to return by, so even when Dallas had no inkling of his pending explosion, transferring off him was at all times an odd resolution, particularly when taking again Caleb Martin, who’s older, injured and simply, effectively, worse.
The Mavericks turned one more crew to surrender on Grimes prematurely, because the Knicks and Pistons additionally relinquished him in questionable offers.
It appears Grimes, now on his fourth crew, lastly bought the possibility to point out the league what they’d been lacking out on.
In fact, the story does not finish right here.
As is at all times the case with the Sixers, contractual parts stand earlier than them, relentlessly taunting their future salary-cap obligations.
Grimes will grow to be a restricted free agent this summer season. And whereas the league has seen a dramatic decline in gamers receiving supply sheets, Grimes could be too good for, say, the Brooklyn Nets to not troll the eternal heck out of the Sixers.
Nets common supervisor Sean Marks has a historical past of doing this. Otto Porter ($106 million), and Allen Crabbe ($75 million) being two main examples of the place Marks pressured the Washington Wizards and Portland Path Blazers, respectively, to match offers with gamers these groups felt uncomfortable finishing to start with. Neither Porter nor Crabbe stayed with their groups at some point of these contracts.
Grimes looks like an apparent candidate to swing on in the event you’re the Nets.
The Sixers are already in salary-cap hell given the albatross contracts of Embiid and George. If the Nets provided Grimes $100 million over 4 years, that might put Philadelphia in a troublesome spot.
Grimes could be price it, however that would not be the difficulty. The truth that the Sixers must steadiness Embiid, George, Tyrese Maxey and Grimes, all on huge offers, could be the problem.
In fact, you could possibly argue the Sixers should not compound errors by letting high-quality expertise go away, solely to be caught with expertise that is perpetually unavailable. However since possession indicators the checks, that would grow to be a troublesome promote.
No matter occurs this summer season, one factor appears abundantly clear: Grimes has elevated himself to a spot the place a number of groups could have curiosity, and that’s greater than what will be mentioned from the scenario a 12 months in the past.
