Philadelphia 76ers guard Quentin Grimes was one of the top young talents to struggle through restricted free agency last summer.
The 6-foot-5 Kansas product, 25, failed to come to terms with Philadelphia on a long-term agreement, despite putting up big numbers after arriving to the team midway through the year in a trade with the Dallas Mavericks.
According to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Grimes and his management were angling for a contract that would pay in the range of $20-$25 million per year.
When that didn't materialize, Grimes went the way of another prolific restricted free agent scoring guard, Brooklyn Nets wing Cam Thomas. Grimes picked up his $8.7 million player option, and will now be able to choose his destiny as an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Pompey posits that Sixers team president Daryl Morey generally likes to let the rest of the NBA dictate the terms of his incumbent free agents' future value. Of course, that hardly explains Morey's thinking behind inking oft-hurt All-Star center Joel Embiid to a three-year, $193 million maximum extension contract without any kind of injury contingency language just last summer.
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Still, given that Grimes was a restricted free agent this summer, any other team could have theoretically tendered him a contract offer. Philadelphia would have had the right to match any such deal.
Nothing materialized. And so Morey and Sixers, partly grappling with the realities of a pricey payroll, could fully dictate the terms of engagement.
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Grimes thrived while closing out the 2024-25 season in Philadelphia, with ailing then-rookie guard Jared McCain already shut down for the year. Across 28 games with the Sixers, Grimes posted 21.9 points, 5.2 boards, 4.5 dimes and 1.5 steals.
The team was already fully tanking by the time he got there, however, and one executive told Pompey that they were dubious Grimes' output would translate to a playoff hopeful on a fully healthy roster.
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