As a general rule, NBA teams are reluctant to trade young, homegrown talent. This is especially true if said talent is undervalued in the rest of the league. When executives find gems late in the first round, anywhere in the second or on the scrap heap, they’re hooked. The achievements of these players reflect well on their teams’ scouting and development programs. Often they are hard workers and lovable teammates, the kind of guys who bring good vibes to the practice facility and become fan favorites.
About Every team is obsessed with drafting and developing well, though, in part because it allows you to trade for stars. Normally, when a player like Donovan Mitchell is on the trade market, he’s not traded for another multi-time All-Star at a similar stage in his career. It will be traded for draft picks and younger, cheaper players who could potentially turn into All-Stars one day.
Enter 22-year-old Quentin Grimes. He is a 6-foot-4 wing with a 6-8 wingspan, and was selected by the New York Knicks at No. 25 in the 2021 draft. He averaged six points, two boards and one assist in 17 minutes as a rookie with 40-38-68 shooting splits. These numbers don’t suggest future stardom, nor do they suggest he should be off limits in trade talks. And yet the Knicks have reportedly taken a firm stance when negotiating with the Utah Jazz: Grimes is off limits.
In an interview with ESPN 700, Tony Jones of The Athletic Said New York is willing to part with 24-year-old big man Obi Tappen in Mitchell Deal, but Utah wants Grimes:
“A player who [the Knicks] Quentin Grimes is trying not to be put into this deal. They don’t want Quentin Grimes in this deal under any circumstances. And the No. 1 player the Jazz want in this deal is Quinton Grimes. And I get the feeling that the Jazz are really hesitant to make a deal that doesn’t include Quentin Grimes. I can tell you that the Knicks are capable of giving the Jazz Obi Toppin, a really young and high-energy, high-ceiling power forward, but Quentin Grimes is a major sticking point right now.”
If your perspective on this information is an incredulous, “Sure, this guy with a 14.9 percent usage rate is why the Knicks didn’t trade for Mitchell, whatever you say,” then you call him Rodriguez. Would like to dedicate a reference to Beaubois. In February 2010, until the trade deadline, owner of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban said That a rookie Beaubois — the No. 25 pick, just like Grimes — was “pretty much untouchable.”
“There’s probably one or two guys in the league that I would trade him for,” Cuban said. “that’s it.”
Beaubois had an encouraging year, including a 40-point game in March, but his progress stalled the following summer when he broke his foot. He needed another surgery on the same foot after his second season, and since breaking his hand in 2013, his fourth and final season with the Mavericks, Beaubois has been playing in Europe. I was a big Bobois man, but I admit he should never have been untouchable.
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On All-Star Weekend in 2011, the Knicks held a late-night meeting with the Denver Nuggets to negotiate a trade for Carmelo Anthony. Anthony himself was at the meeting with his agent at the time, Leon Rose, who is now New York’s team president. The Knicks and Nuggets had been talking since last summer, but this was different: Anthony saw the two sides squabble over picks and players. One of them was rookie center Timofey Mozgov, who scored 23 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in a win over the week before. unfunctional The Detroit Pistons team is encouraging fans at Madison Square Garden to chant his name.
Mozgov appeared in 34 NBA games and averaged 4.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in 13.5 minutes. Except for that Pistons game, he had scored in double figures only once. But the Nuggets squad, led by then-GM Masai Ujiri, insisted on getting him. “We want Mozgovthat was the deal,” Anthony Remembered on ESPN’s “The Woj Pod.” Laughing “Timofey Mozgov. Mozgov was a deal breaker in the New York trade.” The Knicks eventually relented, but they were able to hang onto rookie wing Landry Fields.
With the knowledge that Mozgov will top as a solid role player and a A mysterious nerve injury would derail Fields’ playing career., those negotiations seem silly. Years from now, it will seem just as silly that New York and Utah, Two logical partners for this particular blockbusterFor which a man was hanged Looked fantastic in summer league. Perhaps it is considered as his greatest professional achievement.
Answer Point: Did you? See Grimes at Summer League?
Grimes was primarily a 3-and-D guy in his first season with the Knicks, a reliable wing who knocked down open jumpers, made good decisions and played physical perimeter defense. He built on the foundation he established in his two seasons in Houston, and had flashes of the off-the-dribble playmaking that defined his game before his freshman year at Kansas. Fans wanted him to play more and hope to see more flashes from him. In that regard, Summer League was everything they imagined and then some.
As a shooter, Grimes was a threat wherever he went, willing to fire deep, off the move, in transition and off the dribble:
With the ball in his hands, he was just as aggressive. Grimes attacked closeouts, and he also made plays off pick-and-rolls and dribble handoffs. He went to big guys who switched on him, and he spooned center Jericho Sims with several smart passes.
Standing in the Summer League does not guarantee anything. Just ask Beaubois or Anthony Randolph, another player considered untouchable in the NBA who only found steady ground once he went overseas. The way Grimes played, it shows that he is the type of player that every team wants. At worst, he will complement the star players well and take nothing off the table. At best, he’s poised to make a Desmond Bean-esque leap into his second season.
That he is young and unproven allows the Jazz to demand Grimes. And Multiple first-round picks in exchange for a guy who dominated playoff games. He’s shown enough upside, though, that he and the Knicks reasonably want to see how his game grows. Sometimes, teams are proven to value their young guys too much — the Philadelphia 76ers Reportedly refused the offer James Harden packages a rookie Tyrese Maxey to the Houston Rockets in 2021, and they managed to get Harden the following year, amid a breakout with Maxey.
New York has been waiting years to land a star like Mitchell, but it’s understandable that they’re not giving up Grimes without a fight. Would it make sense to have Grimes? gave The reason the Knicks don’t get Mitchell? Probably not, but that’s not the way to look at it anyway. I That interview on ESPN 700, Jones reported that Grimes wasn’t the only sticking point. Jones said New York’s best offer “consisted of several first-round picks, but most of them were protected rather than unprotected.” The Jazz value the Knicks’ unprotected picks more than other teams’ protected picks.
In other words, if New York is willing to trade all the picks Utah wants, it can probably keep Grimes and get Mitchell. Earlier this offseason, Jazz president Danny Ainge “pushed hard” to acquire Jaden McDaniels from the Minnesota Timberwolves in a Rudy Gobert deal. According to The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski and Jones. When the Wolves held their ground on McDaniels, Utah asked for more picks instead. The Knicks aren’t exactly weighing what Grimes could be against what Mitchell already is. They’re weighing what they might be up against against what it would cost to keep him out of the deal.
