Knicks Summer League Star Quentin Grimes Earns First Team Honors

Grimes was among Vegas' leading scorers.

Some guys just can't handle Vegas. Quentin Grimes appears to be an exception.

The New York Knicks' leading developmental scorer was named to the NBA's Las Vegas Summer League First Team that was unveiled on Monday. He joins fellow Association sophomores Sandro Mamukelashvili (Milwaukee) and Cam Thomas (Brooklyn) on the team, which is headlined by Sacramento's Keegan Murray, the fourth overall pick in last month's draft and the overall MVP of the Vegas exhibition slate. Houston's Tari Eason (the 17th pick in June) rounded out the five.

Grimes, the Knicks' first-round pick in the 2021 draft, was the star of New York's lucrative Vegas endeavors. The team went 3-2 and made its first appearance in the Summer League championship game. Though the Knicks fell to Portland's prospects by an 85-77 final, Grimes turned heads as one of the competition's top scorers. Grimes was one of two players (along with fellow New Yorker Thomas) to partake in all five games of his Summer League journey and average at least 20 points. 

His tally of 22.6 was good for fifth amongst all competitors and his plus/minus (+10) was third-best amongst five-game participants (behind Jared Rhoden of Sacramento and Carik Jones of Chicago). 

Grimes made no secrets about his intentions to "dominate" Summer League play after appearing in 46 NBA contests in his rookie year. His Vegas performances have reportedly drawn outside attention: as the Knicks continue to linger in the bartering for Donovon Mitchell, the All-Star's current employers in Utah have taken a liking to Grimes as they inch closer toward a franchise-altering rebuild.

Grimes averaged 15.3 points over six games in last summer's Vegas activities. While his future is uncertain, it's clear that the only way that Grimes returns to Sin City in a basketball setting is if the Association opts to put a team there full-time in the future.