I know Knicks fans are bored waiting for the season to start, but I think people are forgetting just how good defensively Quentin Grimes was in his 2nd season in the NBA. So I wanted to present some stats just to show how elite Grimes was last season.
Grimes made a huge leap defensive last season and lead the entire league in matchup difficulty.
How big was it to lead the league in matchup difficulty? By the numbers Grimes had the 3rd highest matchup difficulty season in the past decade!. Thibs was really leaning on Grimes to guard every single player at a near historic rate. So how did Grimes do in his assignments?
Opponents only shot 31.4% // 0.72 PPP in ISO when Grimes was guarding them. In comparison opponents shot 45.2% // 0.86 PPP against Jrue Holiday in ISO.
This is due to the fact that Grimes is a versatile defender who can matchup with nearly every position in the NBA, while Jrue is mainly effective against guards and gets bullied by wings.
We saw this in the playoffs in the first round where Jimmy Butler averaged 56.5%! against Jrue on 46 FGA
Meanwhile Grimes was able to hold Donovan Mitchell to 27% in the first round and then held Jimmy 30.8% shooting when matched-up with him in the second round.
Now I know some of you will argue that Jimmy was injured but this tracks to the regular season where Jrue usually gets abused by big wings (Butler 50 FG%, Tatum 71.4 FG%, Lavine 57.1%). While Grimes holds his own(Butler 43.8 FG%, Tatum 38.9 FG%, 47.6%)
Now this doesn’t mean that Grimes is better than Jrue or that Jrue doesn’t offer other attributes than Grimes that make him a better all-around defender (off-ball defense, passing lane navigation, veteran savvy, etc.), but it does show that Grimes had an elite impact as just a 2nd year player. To trade or bench Grimes for Jrue who is more than a decade older and doesn’t even offer an upgrade offensively does not seem to be the wise moves that this front office likes to make.
Grimes needs all the reps and minutes he can get and I can’t wait for the season to start to see his next chapter as a Knicks starter.
Grimes made a huge leap defensive last season and lead the entire league in matchup difficulty.
How big was it to lead the league in matchup difficulty? By the numbers Grimes had the 3rd highest matchup difficulty season in the past decade!. Thibs was really leaning on Grimes to guard every single player at a near historic rate. So how did Grimes do in his assignments?
Opponents only shot 31.4% // 0.72 PPP in ISO when Grimes was guarding them. In comparison opponents shot 45.2% // 0.86 PPP against Jrue Holiday in ISO.
This is due to the fact that Grimes is a versatile defender who can matchup with nearly every position in the NBA, while Jrue is mainly effective against guards and gets bullied by wings.
We saw this in the playoffs in the first round where Jimmy Butler averaged 56.5%! against Jrue on 46 FGA
Meanwhile Grimes was able to hold Donovan Mitchell to 27% in the first round and then held Jimmy 30.8% shooting when matched-up with him in the second round.
Now I know some of you will argue that Jimmy was injured but this tracks to the regular season where Jrue usually gets abused by big wings (Butler 50 FG%, Tatum 71.4 FG%, Lavine 57.1%). While Grimes holds his own(Butler 43.8 FG%, Tatum 38.9 FG%, 47.6%)
Now this doesn’t mean that Grimes is better than Jrue or that Jrue doesn’t offer other attributes than Grimes that make him a better all-around defender (off-ball defense, passing lane navigation, veteran savvy, etc.), but it does show that Grimes had an elite impact as just a 2nd year player. To trade or bench Grimes for Jrue who is more than a decade older and doesn’t even offer an upgrade offensively does not seem to be the wise moves that this front office likes to make.
Grimes needs all the reps and minutes he can get and I can’t wait for the season to start to see his next chapter as a Knicks starter.
