Quentin Grimes Disgruntled With Tom Thibodeau, New York Knicks Role?

Tuesday night was another struggle for Quentin Grimes, who continues to struggle in his second season as a New York Knicks starter.

It appears that Tom Thibodeau is not ready for Grimes time.

Tuesday night was a struggle for almost anyone wearing a New York Knicks uniform, as the dream of In-Season Tournament glory died to the tune of a 146-122 shellacking at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks. It was particularly tough for Quentin Grimes, who was spared from the carnage for all the wrong reasons.

Grimes was one of the most pleasant surprises to emerge from the Knicks' 2022-23 season, taking over the team's primary shooting guard spot in the early stages of the campaign. New York went 40-26 when Grimes, a first-round pick from the 2021 draft, appeared in the starting five, endearing himself to Manhattanites with his strong defense and solid outside shooting abilities.

But Grimes' reprise has left a lot to be desired: 20 games into this season, Grimes has earned only 5.8 points a game and has been routinely removed from the Knicks' crunch-time rotations. That included only six minutes of action in the second half of Tuesday's loss to the Bucks. Grimes vented about his apparent decline, hinting that the pressure of keeping a role in a Thibodeau rotation has raised upon the removal of some safeguards in year two among the five.

“It feels like if I don’t hit the shot, I’m coming out,” Grimes said, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. “So every shot I shoot probably weighs like 100 pounds if I don’t make it, and our defense, it ain’t cutting it, so I know I ain’t going back in.”

“I just know last year RJ (Barrett) missed a lot of games. Jalen (Brunson) missed some games. So I had the ball in my hands a little bit more," Grimes continued. "I knew I wasn’t coming out. I knew I was going to be in there and get more shots, play the whole first quarter, the whole third quarter. I knew I had opportunities to get the ball and get my shots up. Now it’s just a matter if the ball come my way, really.”

Grimes has struggled in the early stages of year three in New York / David Richard, USA TODAY SPORTS

Grimes' hesitation is apparent with one look at his box score: after putting up almost nine shots a game last season, he's putting up less than six this time around. He put up only one shot in Tuesday's loss, a misfired three-pointer amidst Milwaukee's second half takeover that saw them outscore the Knicks by 21. Grimes sat out the entire fourth quarter as the Bucks pulled away.

“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 said in Bondy's report. "It’s tough going out there and just standing in the corner the whole game. Then you got to make the shot when you shoot the ball one or two times per game. It is what it is.”

A two-game absence (Nov. 17-18) induced by a wrist injury certainly hasn't helped matters, nor has the addition of Donte DiVincenzo. The former Villanova Wildcat, a past and present teammate of fellow Knick regulars Brunson and Josh Hart, has assumed Grimes' dual role as an outside shooting and defensive specialist and some have called for a promotion into the starting five.

What's most troubling is that the Knicks (12-8) made an apparent dedication to Grimes over the past two summers by reportedly keeping him out of potential trades for hypothetical imports (i.e. Donovan Mitchell) and exercising his fourth-year option. For Grimes to be posting these numbers (2.3 points on 18 percent shooting over the past seven games since returning from injury) is a damning indictment of the Knicks' patience and faith in their homegrown projects. 

Thibodeau was hesitant to talk about Grimes' status in Tuesday's aftermath, remarking that the disaster was no single man's fault. Grimes' teammates, however, were happy to exonerate him, blaming themselves for failing to invoke his talents.

"He has a hard job, a tough role,” Julius Randle said, per Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. “But we’ve got to do a better job of trying to get him better looks, make him feel more included for sure.”

Do Knicks Have a Quentin Grimes Problem?

“I think most importantly being a good teammate is the first thing I have to do, just continue to encourage him, make sure he’s aggressive, keeps his confidence and every player at some point goes through it,” Brunson added in the same report. “I just think for us as teammates, we have to be on his side, tell him things are going to happen, continue to do what you do, do your routine, do all the stuff that helped you get here. Continue with your confidence.”

Grimes' next chance to regain his mojo lands on Friday when the Knicks get a de facto consolation game against the Boston Celtics (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG/NBA TV).