Why Quentin Grimes Could Help Key A Midseason Turnaround For The Philadelphia 76ers

After making the biggest splash of free agency this past summer, signing nine-time All-Star Paul George to a monster contract, the Philadelphia 76ers entered the 2024-25 NBA season with aspirations of competing for a title. Unfortunately, a myriad of injuries (second in the NBA in dollars lost to injury, per Spotrac) has torpedoed their season, leaving the team at 20-29 and 11th in the Eastern Conference.

The good news is they’ve won five of their past seven contests and play in the uninspiring East. It’s a place where the team a spot ahead of them, the Chicago Bulls, only holds a one-game lead over them and is a prime candidate for regression after trading away their best player, Zach LaVine.

So, a Play-In Tournament bid is well within their grasp, and when you have as much top-end talent as this team does, all you need is a hand in the dance to have a fighting chance.

Still, despite the danger they present to opposing teams, the Sixers’ supporting cast leaves something to be desired. That’s what makes Tuesday’s trade with the head-scratching Dallas Mavericks particularly tantalizing, when Philadelphia sent Caleb Martin to the Mavericks in return for a second-round pick and the services of Quentin Grimes.

Grimes has had a chaotic last 12 months. When he suits up for the Sixers, it’ll be the fourth team he’s played for during that span. However, despite three front offices seemingly “giving up” on him, Grimes remains one of the most underrated role players in the game.

To understand this, we first need a refresher on what makes a good complementary player in 2024-25. Today, great role players need to be able to shoot, attack off the catch when teams try to run them off the line and be a clear positive on the defensive side of the ball.

Grimes Is A Very Good Off-Ball Player

This season, Grimes is hitting 39.8 percent (80th percentile) of the 6.9 threes per 75 possession he’s attempting, per Dunks & Threes). He immediately provides a huge boost to a team sitting 18th in 3-point attempts and 20th in 3-point percentage.

Grimes also has no problem taking (and making) a big shot.

It's literally impossible not to love and appreciate Quentin Grimes. pic.twitter.com/joE3nmDM2J

— Mat Issa (@matissa15) January 12, 2023

Then, there is his ability to attack closeouts. A great way to measure a role player’s ability to attack off the catch is looking at their true shooting on drives since most of their drives come in those situations as lower-usage, off-ball players. Grimes’ 60 percent true shooting on drives puts him in the 83rd percentile league-wide, per Thinking Basketball. That would be the second-highest mark on the Sixers among qualifying players, behind only Guerschon Yabusele at 69 percent (96th percentile).

Defensive Standout

On defense, Grimes has never been a master thief or touted a Dwyane Wade-ian knack for protecting the rim as a guard. Instead, he makes his bones by being a master of defending the ball and tailing screens. According to BBall Index, he’s in the 96th percentile for ball-screen navigation and 99th percentile for off-ball chaser defense.

His Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus (EPM) output is pedestrian (minus-0.2) and doesn’t grade highly among the rest of the league (51st percentile). Yet this could just be a byproduct of statistical noise, as teams were shooting unsustainably well against the Mavericks from downtown during his minutes (18th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass). Across each of his first three years, the stifling wing posted a Defensive EPM in the 76th percentile or higher.

When everyone is healthy and available, Grimes is a perfect fit in the Sixers’ defensive system. Injuries aside, Joel Embiid is still an elite paint protector. George can use his nearly 7-foot wingspan to offer resistance when Embiid gets stretched out to the perimeter. Kelly Oubre Jr. can leverage his never-ending freneticism to create turnovers. What the team needs is a hound dog at the point-of-attack to pester the other team’s best perimeter creator.

In theory, Martin could have carried out these duties. However, Grimes is having the better season (see chart above), and he’s also younger with a superior track record as a shooter. The Sixers swapped these two and added second-round pick to their collection of trade chips.

Grimes elevates the full version of this team. His arrival reinforces the Sixers as a team worth monitoring, despite their subpar record.