Quentin Grimes isn’t going anywhere.
Following a breakout, high-volume scoring run with the Philadelphia 76ers during the second half of the 2024-25 season, Grimes signed a one-year, $8.7 million qualifying offer to return to the franchise Wednesday afternoon, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Advertisement
Charania reported that Grimes’ side and the Sixers struggled to find common ground this offseason, and that, according to Grimes’ agent, the Sixers didn’t make a formal proposal until Sept. 24.
While Grimes was looking for a more lucrative contract this offseason, the deal he reportedly signed comes with a no-trade clause that will allow him to veto all trades during the 2025-26 season and enter unrestricted free agency next summer, which is expected to be more cap friendly, per Charania.
Philadelphia believes it has a “solid chance” to retain Grimes next summer, Charania reported Wednesday.
[Get more Sixers news: Philadelphia team feed]
Grimes averaged 21.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.2 steals in 28 games, and 25 starts, with the injury-riddled Sixers, who acquired him before this year’s trade deadline. The Sixers traded forward Caleb Martin — who they had signed last summer — for Grimes and a 2025 second-round pick.
Advertisement
Grimes, 25, arrived in Philadelphia having appeared in 47 games for the Dallas Mavericks earlier in the season. He made 12 starts for the Mavericks in 2024-25 and averaged 10.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 0.7 steals in 22.8 minutes per game. Most notably, he was shooting a career-best 39.8% from 3.
He couldn’t quite maintain that long-range shooting mark in Philadelphia, but he wasn’t far off. Grimes netted 82 triples with the Sixers, averaging 2.9 per game at a 37.3% clip.
The 6-foot-4 Grimes also proved to be much more than just a 3-point shooter in extended action with the Sixers. While registering his first 1,000-point NBA season, the University of Houston product recorded more than 300 field goals in a single season for the first time in his four-year NBA career. He made 384 field goals last season — only 162, or 42.2%, of which were 3s.
Advertisement
Grimes reached or surpassed the 20-plus-point scoring barrier 23 times this past season. He scored 30 or more points five times, all with the Sixers, twice delivering 40-pieces. In a March 1 win over the Golden State Warriors, Grimes poured in 44 points. Later that month, on March 17, he set a new single-game career high with 46 points, plus 13 rebounds, in an overtime loss to the Houston Rockets.
Grimes, a Houston native, was originally selected by the Los Angeles Clippers with the No. 25 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. He was immediately traded to the New York Knicks as part of a deal for guard Keon Johnson, whom the Knicks had taken with the No. 21 overall pick.
New York was home for Grimes the first two-plus seasons of his pro career. The Knicks traded him, three other guards and two second-round picks to the Detroit Pistons in February 2024. In return, New York acquired forward Bojan Bogdanovic and wing Alec Burks.
Advertisement
Because of knee soreness, Grimes played in only six games for the Pistons. Last summer, Detroit sent him to Dallas in exchange for guard Tim Hardaway Jr. and a trio of second-round picks.
Grimes played the 2024-25 season with the Mavericks and Sixers on the final year of his rookie contract.
Philadelphia was the right place at the right time for Grimes, who has now earned himself a deal with the Sixers that allows him to enter unrestricted free agency next summer with more spenders potentially in line for his services.
Read the full article here