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Sorting Through the Quentin Grimes and Sixers Saga, With Both Sides to Blame
By Sean Barnard
Published:
The most notable storyline of the entire Sixers offseason, Joel Embiid recovery notwithstanding, was the restricted free agency of Quentin Grimes. Daryl Morey traded for the former first-round pick at the deadline and he became the biggest bright spot to close down last season. Across his 28 games played in Philadelphia, Grimes averaged 21.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 37.3% from beyond the three-point arc. He was the lone bright spot in some really lifeless Sixers games.
Grimes was a restricted free agent this offseason, giving the Sixes the right to match any offer sent his direction from opposing NBA teams. This also complicated the outlook for reaching an agreement as these offers never came in. With cap situations complicated around the league, no legitimate offer to “set the market” for Grimes arrived at the front office, leaving his camp and the Sixers to sort through it between each other. For what it’s worth, this same problem occurred with each other restricted free agent and and respectivelyteam with Josh Giddey and the Chicago Bulls, Jonathan Kuminga and the Warriors, and Cam Thomas and the Nets.
When push finally came to shove with the October 1st deadline, Grimes elected to bet on himself by opting into his qualifying offer and will be on a one-year, $8.7 million deal and hold a no trade clause for the duration of the season. He will become an unrestricted free agent next summer and for the first time in his career fully control his outlook:
Why Quentin Grimes Opted-In:
It’s been a turbulent start to Grimes’ career. The 25-year-old has played for four teams in four seasons and has been traded three times in the past two years alone. While you can dig into the specifics in each and understand the financial implications and motivations behind each deal, this still raises eyebrows for a player of his talent level.
Free agency is supposed to be the opportunity for the player to control their future. They cannot choose what team drafts them nor if they are traded and Grimes has felt this in full force. Free agency also marks a player’s first time to seek out their worth and be paid like the caliber of talent they prove to be at the professional level.
For Grimes, this is an extremely difficult question to answer. During the 2022-23 season he was the Knicks’ starting shooting guard, producing 11.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists while shooting 38.6% from beyond the three-point arc. But in the first part of last season he also struggled to crack the Mavericks rotation, playing just 22.8 minutes per game, and he also saw his role shrink in New York before the trade took place. The Houston product made the most of the extended level of basketball freedom he received upon being traded to the Sixers and filled up the stat sheet to a level beyond what has ever been the case. The facts remain that he was a 20+ point scorer across the 28 games he spent in Philadelphia while showing layers of game he was not previously able to. But it is fair to question how much this truly equates to winning with it taking place during a lost Sixers season. You cannot put the blame entirely on Grimes’ shoulders by any means, but the fact still remain that the Sixers won just four of the 28 games he played in.
Grimes had a little dust-up with former Sixers fan-favorite Georges Niang last year when he told Grimes right to his face that he will be back standing in the corner once the roster returns to full health. Time will tell if this will be the case, but there is at least some level of truth to what Niang was saying:
Grimes is right to look to maximize his market with his first time in control of his destiny and ready to see an increase from his rookie contract. But his representation looked to get a bit overzealous in negotiations, which at least partially led to the discussions eroding. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that conversations started with Grimes seeking $30 million annually. It was widely reported throughout the summer that $20 to $25 million was what he desired.
This was well beyond the price point the Sixers were comfortable spending. Their first formal offer was just sent to Grimes this past week, about three months into free agency, for four years and $39 million or roughly $9.75 annually. It feels as if they recognized the significant gap in conversations and realized the pathway to middle ground was improbable.
Philadelphia notably declined Grimes’ camp’s request to extend the deadline for his qualifying offer by one week to further discussion and left him with this deadline to decide. Ultimately, he elected to do exactly that and took the one-year $8.7 million deal. Grimes is betting on himself to replicate the level he put on display to close last season and will re-enter free agency in an unrestricted capacity next summer when there will be more teams with cap space. With the no-trade clause in his pocket by nature of the qualifying offer, for the first time Grimes’ NBA career he has control of his future.
Are the Sixers to Blame?
An ideal outcome from the Sixers’ perspective would have been to sign Grimes to a long-term tradable contract to keep full flexibility. They failed to do so in this regard and therefore it is a failure.
But I have a hard time being directly critical of Daryl Morey given the other options on the table. It is fair to be skeptical of last year’s level of play being sustainable given Grimes’ overall career. Making a gamble in a period when every dollar counts a little more in the context of the new CBA would be an extreme risk, especially given the Sixers have $105 million annually committed to Joel Embiid and Paul George for the next three seasons. The other possibility floated out there was a one-year balloon deal, where the Sixers payed above the qualifying offer in exchange for him dropping the no-trade clause. The Sixers reportedly made an offer with a slight raise in this direction while Grimes’ camp wanted $17 million, or double his pay, for this to be the case. These conversations did not seemingly pick up much steam either.
The criticisms coming from Grimes’ agent over the past few weeks were that the Sixers were not operating with the belief that the worst case scenario would be for him to accept the qualifying offer. This is probably true. In Morey’s eyes, Grimes now has to prove it over the length of a full season and he can evaluate how much of last year’s production is here to stay. If he is successful and looks to be a long-term fit alongside the more notable talents that he did not share the floor last year, conversations can resume next offseason. The Sixers can still sign him to a long-term contract at this point, and will maintain his birds rights, which is an advantage from a salary cap perspective.
If Grimes were to waive his no trade clause and be traded midseason, his bird rights would not travel with him, which puts some limitations on what he could be re-signed for with it maxing out at a 120% raise of last year’s salary. I defer to Adam Aaronson at PhillyVoice for the exact math on this:
Assuming the dollar figure is Grimes’ priority, which all indications are to be the case, he would be leaving plenty of potential money on the table. Your maximum possible contract being just under $10.5 million for next year when you were asking for $30 million annually just a couple weeks ago is quite the change. A team would not make a trade for Grimes without the intention of re-signing him, just as was the case with the Sixers this year.
For this reason it would be in Grimes’ best interest to start and end next season in Philadelphia. However, he also is heading into the full prove-it season to play on a roster that has three talented guards that the organization has far more invested in each of these. Tyrese Maxey has already earned his max contract and has an All-Star appearance under his belt at age 24. Jared McCain would have been the runaway Rookie of the Year winner last year had his season not ended prematurely. Perhaps most notably, the Sixers just drafted VJ Edgecombe with the third overall pick in the draft. Nick Nurse will be creative in rolling out different lineup combinations to get the most out of these units and see how each play off each other but there is a higher level of overlapping skillset that you would prefer from a roster balance standpoint.
Sure, you can be critical of Morey for not making a more significant effort to come to a middle ground with Grimes and get him locked up longterm. But the honest reality is he likely did not want to commit longterm money at a notable amount without knowing how good this team is even going to be. It’s more than just being cheap as an organization, there are legitimate roster construction hurdles that occur when continually pushing the chips in the middle.
This was a saga in which Grimes’ camp attempted to strong-arm the Sixers to a level that they did not quite have the power to do and it seemed to basically stall out the negotiations entirely. Morey will sit back and take in a full season sample size of who Grimes’ truly is as a basketball player and what his fit is on this Sixers roster. The two sides will likely pick up these same negotiations next summer and what Grimes’ level of opportunity is on the court will likely dictate who ends up being right. For the time being, it feels Grimes is taking a far more significant risk.
Sean Barnard has covered the Philadelphia 76ers and general Philly Sports for over six years in a variety of roles and for multiple outlets. Currently works as a Content Writer for DraftKings Network, Sixers/NBA Insider for Philadelphia's Fox Sports the Gambler, and co-host of Sixers & Phillies Digest on Youtube. Forever Trusting the Process.