Knicks Welcome Back Quentin Grimes Amidst Atlanta Debacle

The sophomore's highly-anticipated season debut was a silver lining for the downtrodden New York Knicks.

Happy returns at Madison Square Garden often never involve the Atlanta Hawks, who have pecked at the New York Knicks' side over the past three seasons in the form of brutal, high-profile defeats. 

The latest was a 112-99 defeat on Wednesday night that saw the Hawks, victors of the Knicks' first playoff series as a higher seed since 2013 a calendar year ago, make up a 23-point deficit mostly without the services of superstar and subject of MSG's scorn Trae Young. 

In the midst of the chaos, however, the Knicks were able to welcome Quentin Grimes to the 2022-23 season proceedings, as the first-round pick made his highly-anticipated sophomore season debut on Wednesday after missing the first six games of the season with foot soreness. 

Grimes made his entrance with 4:38 to go in the contest and wound up adding an assist on an RJ Barrett lay-up in the final minute, which proved to be window dressing in an ugly loss. He also missed his only attempt from the field and was also charged with a foul.

Head coach Tom Thibodeau remarked that he inserted Grimes to "inject energy" in what's by far the Knicks' most painful contest of the infantile season.

"Let him see where he is," Thibodeau declared. "I thought he gave us some pretty good minutes.”

The 25th overall pick of the 2021 draft missed the first six games of the season thanks to foot soreness, forcing Knicks fans to be patient after a summer of strong hype. Grimes' Summer League affairs were promising enough, as he averaged 22.6 points in five games and headlined the Knicks' runner-up finish in Sin City.

But the Knicks' apparent protection of Grimes from the Donovan Mitchell affairs added a whole new layer of lore to the Houston alum's apparent cult following amongst metropolitan supporters. Grimes appeared in 46 games last season, averaging six points and two rebounds a game while also earning positive reviews for his defense.

After an eventful summer, one full of promise but featuring the burden of increased responsibilities, some observers have advocated for Grimes to usurp Evan Fournier as the primary shooting guard in the starting lineup. 

But don't expect Grimes' opportunities to immediately come in: Thibodeau plans to ease him back into the New York system, a plan that likely centers upon keeping Cam Reddish in what's been a 10-man rotation in the early going.

"He’ll be situational to start,” Thibodeau said. “If your matchup is a guy off the dribble, he’s good at that. He’s also very good at catch-and-shoot, locking and trailing people, and staying attached. … He’s a fierce competitor, and we need that.”

"He’s got great feet, he’s got anticipation, he’s got strength, so I think that’s what makes him such a good defender. He doesn’t take any plays off, (plays) full speed all the time."

Grimes and the Knicks (3-4) return to action on Friday night when they hit the road to battle the Philadelphia 76ers (7 p.m. ET, MSG). 

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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