Detroit Pistons Slighted for Trading Former First-Round Pick

Should the Pistons have moved Quentin Grimes so soon?

Feb 26, 2024; New York, New York, USA; Detroit Pistons guard Quentin Grimes (24) warms up before a game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

At the trade deadline last season, the Detroit Pistons made a flurry of moves to shake up the roster for the final stretch of the 2024 campaign. Among the biggest moves they made was trading Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks to the New York Knicks for a flurry of players.

Among those Detroit got back in the trade was former first-round pick Quentin Grimes. On paper, he was exactly the kind of prospect the Pistons needed. Grimes is a positive on the defensive end of the floor, and has been an effective three-point shooter at the NBA level. At only 23-years-old, he certainly could have been a long-term complementary piece for a team desperate for outside shooting.

At the time of the trade, Grimes was dealing with a knee injury. He'd end up playing briefly for Detroit, but it was clear he wasn't 100%. In the six games he played in, Grimes averaged 5.3 PPG and shot just 14.5% from beyond the arc.

Fast forward to the offseason, and Grimes saw his brief stint with the Pistons come to an end. Trajan Langdon ended up parting ways with him in the Tim Hardaway Jr. trade with the Dallas Mavericks.

Now that most teams are done making moves ahead of training camp, the people at Bleacher Report cited likes and dislikes from every NBA team's offseason. When breaking down the Pistons, moving on from Grimes so soon was cited as one thing to hate.

But Detroit should have been able to pull that off without including Grimes, a valuable shooter and defender at the guard spot who was a regular starter for the New York Knicks as recently as 2022-23.

Maybe Grimes was never going to feature prominently in Detroit, but he's more than a throw-in and could have been used to bring back assets in a separate trade.

Given the position the Pistons are currently in, they likely shouldn't have been in a hurry to move on from a guy like Grimes. Even though he doesn't have star potential, he was a starting-caliber player that provided needed skills for this roster. If they gave him the chance to get fully healthy, the Pistons might have been able to get greater value for him later down the line.