Nick Nurse just wanted a body.
The Philadelphia 76ers were spiraling into the abyss, their championship hopes unraveling with each new addition to the injury report. Paul George didn’t hold up long. Neither did Joel Embiid. Suddenly, the Sixers had little to play for. A once-deep team had become a shell of itself, and when Dallas called offering Quentin Grimes and a second-round pick for veteran wing Caleb Martin shortly after shocking the world with the Luka Doncic trade to the Los Angeles Lakers, the decision made itself.
“Caleb just wasn’t healthy. He wasn’t playing,” Nurse, the 76ers’ head coach, says now. “Everybody knows what Caleb can do. But he just couldn’t stay on the court. So I was really excited [about the trade] because I thought, ‘We have a body,’ first and foremost.”
Grimes has been far more than just a body. Since arriving in Philadelphia, he’s not just been present — he’s been productive.
Nearly 27 points per game in March. Forty-four against Golden State. Forty-six in a loss to Houston. Twenty-six more Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden against the team that drafted him 25th overall in the 2021 NBA Draft.
Grimes is no longer a spare part in a crowded Knicks rotation. He’s a featured piece — one who’s suddenly putting up star numbers, even if those numbers are coming in losses.
The Sixers are 3-11 in Grimes’ March appearances. But the volume? The efficiency? The rhythm?
It’s real.
“He’s had great moments in the league,” says Tom Thibodeau, who coached Grimes through his first three-and-a-half seasons with the Knicks. “He’s playing, he’s got great rhythm. He can shoot it, put it on the floor, he’s dangerous in transition. He’s making good plays off the dribble. Defensively, he’s terrific. Very dangerous in the open floor.”
Now, as Grimes heads into restricted free agency this summer, the questions are loud — and they are justified.
Are these numbers a byproduct of volume on a losing team robbed of its star power? Or has Grimes always had this in him, hiding in plain sight beneath the role player’s uniform? Can a player who excels in a bad situation carry his production over when the expectation is to win?
“I think it’s a super valid question,” Nurse says. “And I think you have to know exactly what’s happening — and I think you have to figure out how that fits with what you possibly have. In our ideal world, he’s not getting these many attempts when we have our three main scorers playing.
“But I think the real world is those guys [Embiid, George and Tyrese Maxey] are in and out. So maybe can he be a guy who plays one role one night and steps up a role in certain situations, those kind of things. I think he can score the ball. I think he can shoot, which is what we need.”
* * *
Quentin Grimes flashes a knowing smile — part nostalgia, part satisfaction — as the memories rush back.
“I’m pretty comfortable in this arena,” he says, glancing around the visitor’s locker room. “I was here for three years.”
Those years were formative. And what once felt like frustration has, with time and distance, softened into appreciation for the ...
