knicks1248 wrote:This kids defense is very impressive, he is an official 3&D player (reggie bullock, who ironically was taking at 25)

Grimes is more talented than Bullock. Grimes can create his own shot and shoots it better off the bounce. Grimes is also a better rebounder and playmaker than Bullock...

Uptown wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:This kids defense is very impressive, he is an official 3&D player (reggie bullock, who ironically was taking at 25)

Grimes is more talented than Bullock. Grimes can create his own shot and shoots it better off the bounce. Grimes is also a better rebounder and playmaker than Bullock...

Can't wait for the headlines, "Grim(es) Reaper gets Revenge, knocks off Bulls" .... "It was a Grime(s) scene, Quentin slays Hornets"

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“As Scott Perry and University of Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson chatted on the phone Thursday night, with the NBA Draft winding through selections in the early 20s, the Knicks general manager was preoccupied with how the next few picks would go.

“He was nervous somebody was going to take him before he could get to him,” Sampson told The Athletic — “him” being Houston guard Quentin Grimes. “He was just hoping like hell Houston (Rockets) wouldn’t take him. He was their guy, and I think a lot of their movement (Thursday) was geared around they’re in position to get Quentin at 25.”

A few minutes later, the Knicks landed the player they were waiting on. They took Grimes, a 21-year-old guard, with the 25th overall pick, adding a 6-foot-4 guard with a reputation as a sweet shooter and defensive presence on the perimeter to a roster that needs one.

Grimes was the payoff for a furious hour of wheeling, dealing and maneuvering. The Knicks came into the night with the 19th and 21st overall picks but traded out from their first pick and moved down four slots from their other one, changing places with the Clippers for the price of a future second-rounder. Their roster remains mostly barren heading into free agency and the rest of the offseason, where they will take some $50 million into the market.

But in Grimes, they may have landed a rotation player who could at least contribute next season, regardless of how fruitful August is. Grimes comes with the reputation as a 3-and-D guard after he averaged 17.8 points per game and hit 40.3 percent of his 3s. He has length — a 6-foot-8 wingspan — and pedigree — the No. 8 recruit in the 2018 high school class.

Grimes believes that he’ll be a perfect fit for the Knicks, with a skill set they need and the kind of mindset they value.

“I feel like I was picked in the perfect spot,” Grimes said. “I feel like some people might say I was picked too low or picked too high, something like that. But that’s why I got picked in the right situation. That’s why going to New York is going to be a match made in heaven.”

Grimes helped himself with his play at the NBA Combine last month and then impressed with his workout for the team ahead of the draft. When the Knicks traded down to No. 25 Thursday night, it may have been with Grimes in mind. Sampson insisted that the Nuggets were ready to take him with the next pick if he had still been on the board.

In New York, Grimes will join an organization that has a need for what he does. While Sampson gushed about him and repeated that he was a perfect match for head coach Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks will surely love his shooting and offensive repertoire. He could ease his way into the league by hitting 3s and giving the Knicks a perimeter threat.

Grimes took 3s by the truckload at Houston and was efficient, too. Among those players who took at least 100 3s last season, he was 11th in the country in 3s per 100 possessions and one of just two players in the top 25 to hit them at a 40 percent rate, according to Barttorvik. He also finished well enough at the rim, hitting 59.2 percent of his 71 shots there.

“Every day that his eyes open,” University of Houston assistant coach Kellen Sampson said, “that dude is a knockdown shooter.”

Thibodeau surely loved him for his work-hard ethos. Grimes, Kelvin Sampson said, would sometimes come back to the gym after home games and put up shots still in his uniform.

Grimes rebuilt himself after a difficult start to his college career. He went to Kansas as a highly touted recruit but left after a year and an underwhelming performance. At Houston, he found his game again and turned himself into the player he is now, narrowing in on his strengths.

“We needed Quentin here,” Kelvin Sampson said. “We needed his talent, but he needed us, too. He needed our culture. I think there’s some similarities in the culture that we have and some of the things that Thibs emphasizes.”

Despite his scoring numbers and team success — he helped take Houston to the NCAA Final Four this past season — there were questions about Grimes’ ability to be more than just a spot-up shooter. He wasn’t one until his junior season, which was his final collegiate year. And there were still some underlying numbers that were cause for concern; he shot just 32.4 percent on pull-up jumpers off the pick-and-roll, catch and in isolation, via Synergy Sports.

If he settles into a role as a proficient shooter and sturdy defender, the selection will be a victory for the Knicks. Picking at 25, even landing a rotation player is a positive outcome. He knows that his path to playing time is by harping on those two skills on the floor.

But Grimes also believes he can keep layering on top of that. At Houston, Kellen Sampson said the Cougars gave Grimes a defined role as a shooter and finisher because of the presence of two other college guards they prioritized to run the offense.

About 52 percent of his possessions came spotting up or in transition, according to Synergy Sports, and the vast plurality of them were off the catch where Grimes could fire away. But both Sampson coaches believe Grimes can build his game into more and that the NBA’s spacing will accentuate him. While he didn’t get a lot of opportunity to run the pick-and-roll last season, he performed well when he did, averaging 0.98 points per possession as the ballhandler. That put him in the 80th percentile, via Synergy Sports.

Grimes watches film of Devin Booker, Jamal Murray and Bradley Beal. He sees similarities between himself and those three highly productive lead guards in their build and overall games. He tries to emulate their ability to get into pull-up jumpers, get into 3s and make plays for themselves and teammates.

Kelvin Sampson says there is more to him than just standing in the corner. Kellen Sampson points to the strides he made from when he arrived at Houston, when Grimes wasn’t yet a good shooter (his 3-point percentage jumped from 34 percent at Kansas to 40 percent at Houston, and his free throw percentage went from 60 percent to 79 percent) and says it shows his capacity to keep growing.

“Everybody knows I’m a high-level shooter, I’m a high-level defender, but I feel like people label me as a 3-and-D guy; I feel like I’m a lot more than that,” Grimes said. “I can play pick-and-roll, make plays, create plays for myself and others. I feel I have an immediate impact shooting the ball at a high level for 3s and locking down defensively.”

Grimes might get the playing time to develop, too. The Knicks are thin all across the roster right now, with just eight players under contract in addition to Grimes and second-round picks Rokas Jokubaitis, Miles McBride and Jericho Sims.

While they have oodles of cap space — more than any other team this summer. They also have lots of needs. Alec Burks, Frank Ntilikina and Reggie Bullock are all free agents, which will probably lead to turnover on the wing. Point guards Elfrid Payton and Derrick Rose are unsigned, too. If the Knicks plan on signing productive veterans, that room could shrink quickly and leave them leaning on Grimes and McBride for some minutes like they did with last year’s two rookies.

Both Grimes and McBride could have smooth transitions to the hard-charging coaching of Thibodeau. Grimes said he was prepared for it by his two years under Kelvin Sampson; McBride says two years of getting yelled at by West Virginia coach Bob Huggins steeled him for this.

McBride will bring his feisty defense to the roster. He knows that will be his ticket to playing time. At 6-foot-1 with a nearly 6-foot-9 wingspan, he can be a defensive pest in the backcourt and give the Knicks a player who can hound ballhandlers at the point of attack.

He could end up a steal for the Knicks. Several league execs were surprised he lasted until No. 36, and there was some belief he could have been picked in the 20s.

Grimes will be asked to defend well. That’s a prerequisite under Thibodeau. But he’ll have to bring some shooting, too.

“Coming out of high school, people didn’t label me as a shooter at all,” Grimes said. “It was the complete opposite. I feel like I showed that at the combine even in the two games I played, coming off the pick-and-roll, making plays, making shots for myself and making passes coming off pick-and-rolls and in transition, as well. Early on, I might (play) that way as a 3-and-D because of how well I can shoot the ball and how well I play defense, but I feel like I’ll definitely be able to grow into a secondary ballhandler and be able to make plays and facilitate the rock and have a well-rounded, all-around game.”

Pepper wrote:

TheGame wrote:Athletically, the guy does not do it for me. But he has all the intangibles. You hope his dominance at the draft combine carries over to his pro performance. He was a good pick at 25, but we could have Keon Johnson or Josh Christopher who are both guys with more upside. Hopefully, the Knicks know what they are doing.

Agree 100%. To me the big knock on Grimes wasn't so much that he couldn't create his own shot it was that he was not an elite athlete, which can really lower your ceiling in the NBA. K.Johnson is the opposite. Really raw but EXTREMELY athletic with immense upside. I thought he would have been a nice pickup (assuming the Knicks target a starting PG in FA). I LOVE Johnson's defense, reminds me of Shump early on in his career before he got the injury bug.

I like who the Knicks ended up with. I like Grimes and McBride. I get that they got an extra 1st rounder for moving down. That could end up being huge. However, I was excited at the thought of K.Johnson and potentially Jalen Johnson.

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CanItGetAnyWorse wrote:

NYKMentality wrote:I've got to say sorry and apologize to Knicks fans here on UK.

Because last night I had my heart set so much on Sharife Cooper to the point of not being able to appreciate any of our draft picks throughout our NBA draft thread; and I was wrong for that.

Because I've since put hours of research into this kid Grimes and I absolutely love what I'm seeing.

Quentin Grimes this kid is built like a tank @ 6'5/205 lbs and not only is he a two way player but he led an overmatched Houston program into the Final 4!

He averaged...

17.8 Points per game.
5.7 Rebounds per game.
2.0 Assists per game.
1.4 steals per game.

And more importantly he shot lights out from 3 with 100 3's made @ .403% along with man to man on ball defense that's absolutely disgusting. His Defense is sick.

And throughout all of March (8 games) he averaged 17.8 Points, 4.3 Rebounds, 2.0 Assists, 2.0 Steals and shot .422% from the field and .438% from 3PT range.

I now think MSG and NYC is going to absolutely love this kid and his Defense is going to help improve Tom Thibs already #1 Ranked NBA Defense.

So I apologize for my frustrations last night because this kid looks pretty damn awesome and led an overmatched Houston team into the final 4?!?!? And if he would've won Houston's final two games? He goes top 3 overall.

Have you seen any of the replay videos on Youtube from the live draft coverage of the Knicks? It was a riot, but it matched my emotions well.

Seeing 19 getting traded away for a protected pick in the future and then trading 21 as well, I felt empty (as did those guys on Youtube.)
And all that gets preceded by Duerte, Moody, Kispert, Sengun, Murphy and Mann getting picked! GUT PUNCH!!! Was literally worse than the draft where Curry got picked right before us.

In hindsight things worked out pretty well and we got the guys many said we wanted/needed. I'm still sour on the #19 pick getting traded away, but I'd LOVE to be proven wrong here.

Anyway, Love Grimes and I think I love Deuce even more. We certainly got two guys here that scream Thibs! I look forward to watching them play, for the simple reason that they will play. LOL
Such is life with Thibs.

Yeah man.

One thing is for sure.

Our NBA's #1 Defense under coach Thibs just got even BETTER/STRONGER!