Quentin Grimes had something to get off his chest. You could tell it had been gnawing at him, frustrating him. It had been brewing. The Knicks guard was silent or hidden from the media for a few days amid his struggles, and he emerged Tuesday night in the locker room with answers that seemed to build from the pit of his stomach.
To sum up, Grimes gave us the following:
— He doesn’t feel involved in the offense.
— His rhythm and confidence are shaken because he rarely touches the ball.
— He feels extra pressure because Tom Thibodeau will sub him out at the first sign of struggles.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because six other current or former Knicks players — Josh Hart, Cam Reddish, Obi Toppin, Evan Fournier, Mitchell Robinson, Kemba Walker — all echoed similar, if not the exact same, frustrations.
Thibodeau has received the brunt of the criticism for fostering an environment with so much discouragement, which is only partly fair. He’s a great coach but a bad communicator, an issue that got him in trouble in Minnesota and he never bothered to correct. His offense is indeed too heavy on isolation and unimaginative, leaving role players as spectators to consistent doses of dribbling and dribbling and dribbling. The Knicks haven’t ranked better than 28th in assists during Thibodeau’s tenure, the league’s worst cumulative over four-plus seasons. That’s bad, of course. And undoubtedly annoying for players.
But, more importantly to Grimes’ predicament, what else could you expect from this roster? What did the front office think would happen after signing a bunch of players with the same position and similar style?
Leon Rose, if you recall, made a solo move in the offseason — swapping a power forward (Toppin) for a shooting guard (Donte DiVincenzo). It created a logjam at guard and wing, one we all knew was coming. If Rose ever spoke publicly, one question would be why he traded Toppin for nothing.
So now Grimes is losing minutes to DiVincenzo and he’s frustrated. And last season, Fournier lost minutes to Grimes and he was frustrated. Meanwhile, the Knicks don’t have a natural backup power forward and Hart also expressed frustration.
Who could have predicted this? A lot of people did.
Beyond the redundancies and deficiencies in the positional makeup, the Knicks aren’t exactly flush with facilitators. Jalen Brunson is a score-first point guard who’ll often take several dribbles, a few pivots, and multiple looks at the hoop before passing it out. Same with Immanuel Quickley. A valid criticism of RJ Barrett, going back to college, is his tunnel vision with the ball. Julius Randle is probably the team’s best facilitator, and his career assist (3.7 per game) to turnover (2.8) ratio isn’t exactly impressive.
So the personnel lends itself to iso ball, and Grimes, a player labeled by this reporter as the X factor to Knicks success this season, is seeing his minutes and opportunities plummet. Some of the angst is understandable. He’s capable of so much more offensively, which we witnessed in spurts last season. Grimes is also eligible for a contract extension after the season, and players who stand in a corner tend to earn less than playmakers.
It’s an annoying existence to defend the opposition’s top perimeter threat, only to be ignored on the other end.
Not everybody has the personality of PJ Tucker.
“It’s just hard when you go the whole quarter without touching the ball, the whole second quarter without touching the ball, and then you get one shot and you got to make it,” Grimes, 23, said. “So it’s tough going out there and just standing in the corner the whole game.”
Of course, Grimes isn’t blameless. He hasn’t taken advantage of his offensive chances this season, instead hesitating or treating the ball like a hot potato. Confidence may be an issue but blaming wide-open misses on the coach is a cop out.
There clearly needs to be a change, if only because the Knicks can’t afford to operate with the current version of Grimes. They didn’t make him untouchable in trade negotiations for Donovan Mitchell for this to happen. The first obvious solution is to make that blockbuster we’ve been hearing about for so long, clear out the logjam and raise the Knicks ceiling. Rose is sitting on these draft picks and the NBA universe has been waiting for him to pounce.
The more immediate resolution would be to move Grimes to the bench. Elevate DiVincenzo to starter. Perhaps the different lineup would give Grimes a role more suitable than floor spacer, bring back his confidence and the play-making parts of his game that helped carry the Knicks to the fifth-seed last season.
It’s worth a try. They’re getting nothing but frustration with Grimes now.
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