Coming off of their first trip to the NBA Finals since 2011, the Dallas Mavericks will be both the hunters and hunted. They’ve responded in kind, swapping Tim Hardaway Jr., Derrick Jones Jr., and Josh Green for Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall, and Quentin Grimes. Of these offseason changes, the addition of Thompson has been covered more than any. As a four-time NBA champion and an all-time great three-point shooter, it’s easy to see why.
Nonetheless, the Mavs trading for a young former first-round pick shouldn’t be glossed over.
Grimes is only a season removed from posting career-highs of 11.3 points per game and 38.6 percent shooting from three. As Dallas looks to make it back to the NBA Finals, he could be the team’s x-factor. Among the Mavs players, he has the best chance to be a reliable 3-and-D wing, the exact type of player Dallas wants to surround Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving with.
How Quentin Grimes Can Be Mavs’ X-Factor
Grimes sounds as if he believes he’ll get the opportunity to show off his game in Dallas.
“I feel like with the unselfishness and the amount of freedom everybody has, I’ll be able to show more like how I did in New York (with the New York Knicks),” the 24-year-old tells reporters on Media Day (h/t Mike Curtis of the Dallas Morning News). “Whenever somebody was down and injured, I was always able to show more of my offensive game.”
“I really just want to show my whole game,” he adds.
To clarify Grimes’s statement, in 2022-23, he averaged 15.8 points per game when Knicks guard Jalen Brunson was out. These were typically games that Grimes started which helped him be featured in the offense. For a player with a career scoring average of 8.5 points per game, a 186 percent increase in his scoring rate could be perceived as an anomaly. However, it could also be seen as evidence Grimes has been underutilized.
Will Opportunity Come Knocking?
The narrative about Grimes is that he’s been too passive. Yet, he believes that he had a short leash. He even expressed frustrations about being frozen out of the offense, frequently posted up in the corner, and then having to deal with the pressure of converting limited shot attempts.
With Doncic, Irving, and Thompson, Grimes may not get the amount of touches he wants. Nonetheless, Doncic and Irving move the ball and see the court better than Brunson and Julius Randle. Thompson is a stationary shooter rather than a slashing wing like RJ Barrett.
In theory, Grimes could have the chance to hoist up more shots than he did last season. He may also make more plays off the dribble, which he proved he could do at a high level in 2022-23.
If so, the Mavs could look at him as a sixth man, the role that Hardaway used to play. Notably, Hardaway averaged 12.5 field goal attempts per game with Dallas. Grimes has never averaged more than 8.5 field goal attempts per game in any season.
A sixth man role also gives the Mavs the option of playing the latter as a small-ball. With Grimes’ pesky perimeter defense and Thompson’s athletic decline, this actually could help them at that end. In fact, the foursome of Doncic, Irving, Grimes, and Thompson could give Dallas their own Death Lineup, which was a staple of the Warriors’ dynasty teams.
