The New York Knicks have made it through six regular season games with a 3-3 record, but the team’s been without one key player. After playing in the preseason finale against the Washington Wizards, Quentin Grimes has been out with a sore left foot.
Grimes re-aggravated his foot in the preseason, and after that, Tom Thibodeau said that the 22-year-old guard won’t play until he’s feeling no pain in his foot. He’s day-to-day for the time being, but many fans have begun to worry about the severity of his injury.
In fact, the situation with Grimes’ sore foot has drawn a lot of parallels to what Rasheed Wallace went through with the Knicks in the 2012-13 season. Like Grimes, Wallace’s sore foot left him considered as day-to-day, but it was revealed that he was dealing with something far more complicated than a sore foot — a stress fracture.
Wallace signed with New York in 2012 after sitting out the previous two seasons, but after sitting out for four months with his stress fracture, the then 38-year-old decided to officially retire after playing in only four minutes against the Charlotte Bobcats on Apr. 15, 2013. The Knicks went on to make it to the conference semifinals in the playoffs before falling to the Indiana Pacers.
What’s the deal with Knicks’ Quentin Grimes and his sore left foot?
As mentioned, Wallace was out of the NBA for two years before he decided to sign with the Knicks. He was a positive factor for New York at the beginning of the season before suffering what turned out to be a stress fracture. Grimes is at a completely different point in his career than Wallace was, but many have started to worry about what’s been labeled as a ‘sore left foot.’
Grimes was spotted getting some shots up before the Knicks’ game against the Bucks on Friday night, which is a good sign.
— Steve Popper (@StevePopper) October 28, 2022
Grimes played in only 46 games in his rookie season due to a knee injury and a lack of playing time. He was healthy in July during Summer League, where he was named to the All-NBA Summer League First Team. His performance excited fans for what was to come in the 2022-23 season, but he’s yet to take the court in a regular season game.
First and foremost, the Knicks need to make sure that Grimes is fully healthy before he makes his regular season debut. That’s a mistake that the organization made by letting him play in the preseason without him being ready to do so. At this point, the hope is that his sore left foot is just that, and nothing more.
New York has a tough slate of games this week with matchups against Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Boston. Even if Grimes does play (and that’s a big if), he’ll likely be more of a non-factor as he gets accustomed to being back on the court.
Quentin Grimes has a real chance to enter the Knicks’ starting lineup in place of Evan Fournier, but for now, that all depends on the status of his left foot. Hopefully, fans won’t be blindsided with a more serious injury like they were with Rasheed Wallace 10 years ago. Grimes is a key part of the future in New York, so if he were to miss the majority of his second season, it’d be a tough blow to him and the team. Let’s hope that things don’t come to that, though.
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