Where do Quentin Grimes and Jericho Sims fit into the Knicks’ future?
By Kramer Smith
Quentin Grimes has made a case to start at shooting guard
Quentin Grimes is arguably my favorite Knicks prospect, which says a lot because the team holds so much talent. Grimes is just a really good player in every aspect of the game. He is not the most flashy player on the floor, but he just does a little bit of everything well.
Grimes is a really good 3-point shooter, posing to be a threat by making roughly 40% of his attempts from beyond the arc last season. He contributes as a playmaker, and although he only averaged about an assist per game in the regular season (a small sample size), he is generating 4.3 assists per game in his first four Summer League appearances.
A major gripe between the fans and Evan Fournier is that Fournier, although being a dominant 3-point shooter on great nights, offers the team very little on the defensive end. Fournier is currently New York’s third highest player with Jalen Brunson putting the pen to paper, and many feel the Knicks could be spending that money better.
Grimes has no problem on the defensive end, having a strong athletic family background, making him a weapon in the attack-filled Tom Thibodeau unit. Despite a bad knee injury last season that had many fans biting their lips, it hasn’t seemed to hold him back at all this summer.
Grimes is averaging a team-high 23.5 points per game right now in Las Vegas, and he is clearly over qualified to even be there at all.
And as he’s set to enter his second year in the league, there’s a chance that he could be playing for the Utah Jazz. With Donovan Mitchell being made available in trade talks, New York’s been engaging in discussions with Utah. According to The Athletic (subscription required), Grimes is “believed to be of interest” to the Jazz.
But if a trade for Mitchell ends up not being in the cards for the Knicks this summer, Grimes is expected to play a large role in New York next season.
How Grimes fits into the Knicks’ rotation next year
New York is taking this rebuilding process slow and steady, creating an infrastructure of young players and draft picks while adding key starters like Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle where they need to.
A team I look to as a successful representation of what the Knicks are building is the Memphis Grizzlies. On many levels, the two franchises run parallel in their creation; a creation that saw Memphis be one of the association’s best teams last year, finishing 56-26 and second in their conference.
Memphis is spearheaded by a superstar in Ja Morant, with supplemental play from a slew of young talent and veteran additions. New York is very similar in this way.
The Knicks’ “Ja Morant” element is RJ Barrett, who the franchise expects to take the leap to first option next season. The “Jaren Jackson Jr.” role is filled by Mitchell Robinson, who is the team’s defensive anchor. The “Dillon Brooks” position is filled by Randle and Obi Toppin, who are both athletic offensive threats.
This leaves the “Desmond Bane” role to be filled and Grimes fits this spot poetically. Bane is a 3-and-D specialist who is an athletic attacker from the wing when needed. He averaged 18.2 points and shot an impressive 43.6% from three last season. He was an essential part of the Grizzlies’ successful campaign.
This is the position Grimes can fill on the Knicks. He has proven to be everything Bane is in his small sample size of play last year (as far as play styles are concerned) and with more confidence and consistent minutes this upcoming year, he could truly make a case to be an everyday starter if he even shadows the success Bane had last year statistically.
If Grimes could carve this role for himself in New York, with additional play from Brunson, Barrett, and others, the Knicks would pose a strong threat to any NBA defense on any given night.