Should The Knicks Trade Quentin Grimes?

If you’ve been reading Deadseriousness for a minute then you know I have strong feelings about Quentin Grimes. I believe he has the ideal skillset every NBA playoff team would want in their rotation but for some reason, the New York Knicks are reportedly shopping him around before the trade deadline.

This story is coming off the heels of trading first-round pick, Obi Toppin, to the Indiana Pacers and trading first-round picks, RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley, to the Toronto Raptors. Looks like the Knicks have decided they are done with the development stage of their rebuild and want to have playoff-ready, established NBA rotation players instead of continuing to see what Quentin Grimes’s ceiling can be while he’s still on an affordable salary.

But before we dissect whether or not the Knicks should trade Grimes, we have to talk about what he brings to this team right now.

Do the Knicks need Quentin Grimes?

Quentin Grimes shoots 39% from 3 and has a lightning-quick release which is crucial playing next to guys like Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle who dominate possessions and rocket passes at guys’s sneakers with 3 seconds left in the shot clock.

But he can also maneuver with the ball in his hands and finish at the rim. Although he rarely elects to do so and sometimes thinks he’s ’89 Dominique Wilkins trying to dunk from the free-throw line when he should just lay it up.

On the other end of the floor, Grimes is a lockdown perimeter defender capable of putting any guard in handcuffs.

Teams search night and day for this exact player profile and the Knicks—who I am led to believe are trying to win championships—can’t find a way to give this player more minutes so they have to trade him.

Grimes started the season in the starting lineup but went through a cold streak that led to Donte DiVincenzo taking his spot and excelling in his role. Donte is shooting 42% from 3. He’s the 12th-best shooter in the NBA and has shown real chemistry with Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson in a way Grimes hasn’t.

You would think trading away RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley—two ball-dominant guards—for OG Anunoby—who doesn’t need the ball in his hands—would open opportunities for Grimes to remind the Knicks organization he was supposed to be a starter but instead, Miles McBride has gone from DNP’s to swallowing up alllll of the extra minutes. Pause.

Jalen Brunson has missed the last two Knicks games.

Miles McBride played 74 minutes.

Quentin Grimes played 27.

So why isn’t Quentin Grimes playing more?

If you watch Grimes play, he’s frantic as hell. He seems nervous as shit whenever the ball is in his hands and will frequently get the first pass in the possession and then immediately hot potato the ball back to someone else as if he’s afraid of making a mistake.

Which isn’t surprising when he was benched earlier. Head coach, Tom Thibodeau, stripped Grimes of his confidence and is now punishing him for lacking confidence. My man is out here getting gaslit every night.

By comparison, Miles McBride seems to have the ultimate green light, plays fearlessly and has been rewarded for it. McBride plays as if he has no cares in the world and Grimes plays like someone is going to shoot his mother in the eyeball if he doesn’t make his next jumper.

Should the Knicks trade Quentin Grimes?

The problem with trading Grimes is the list of names the Knicks are looking to acquire in exchange:

We really trading our last young piece for these mid ass role players… pic.twitter.com/sWEOaDlioT

— Site (@sitenyk) January 16, 2024

I see so much more upside and potential in Grimes. The Knicks are leaving aloooooot of meat on the bones here for guys like Collin Sexton and TJ fucking McConnell. If I pick up my phone and see Grimes is traded to Detroit to bring Alec Burks back I’m going to do a terrorism.

You trade a young prospect like Grimes in a package for an All-Star-level player. Trading a young, talented, cheap bench guy for an old, talented, expensive bench guy makes a ton of sense for dumb NBA organizations.

It feels like the franchise is making this decision based on the head coach and Thibs hasn’t shown me enough to make me believe he’s the caliber of coach you build a team around. But Thibodeau is obsessed with Josh Hart even though Grimes plays like Thibs thinks Hart does.

So yes, the Knicks should ultimately trade Grimes if the head coach doesn’t believe in him causing him to not believe in himself and look like a fraidy cat whenever he’s on the court with the team’s two stars.

But no, the Knicks should not trade Grimes for Tim Hardaway Jr.

Please do not make me do a terrorism.