cgf wrote:JayTWill wrote:Cool but I would love to see those numbers in the context of the team at full strength. Precious just averaged 24 minutes per game this year for the Knicks ranging from playing 40+ minutes at times down to single digits near the end of the season to DNP's in the playoffs. At full strength Precious is a situational/garbage time player that would be collecting many DNP's. If Thibs has no other options his role would increase but I would never describe him as 24 minute per game player.
In the 25 game sample you posted are 10 of the 14 games Brunson missed that year plus another game where he did not make it past halftime and all 5 of Randle's games he missed plus another one where he got injured in the middle of the game. The two highest minute players on the team were injured resulting in either IQ sliding down to the 1 or RJ and Hart sliding up a position opening up more minutes for Grimes.
There was a slight overlap of 2-3 games where Brunson and Randle were both out at the end of the season and Grimes minutes skyrocketed but when the team was at full strength his average minutes were in the low 20's. That was his main role after the Hart trade.
I hear what you're saying, but injuries are already baked into the calculus. Grimes earned his spot, but an injury his rookie year delayed that and forced Thibs to give Cam Reddish a chance. Just like hot & cold streaks can alter playing time, injuries are just part of the game.
I agree that Grimes' confidence was a big part of his issues last season, especially as Donte's was soaring. I just feel like I need to push back against the way some Knicks fans have tried to spin it as Quentin sulking his way off the team.
Grimes gave an honest assessment when answering a question about his shooting and hacks like Bondy spun that into him complaining about his role. Which isn't fair to a kid who just had a bad year in which he got banged up, his confidence took a hit, and his role changed multiple times...starter to bench w/ IQ+RJ, to bench w/o IQ+RJ, to the record-setting Pistons.
Grimes was a thibs favorite for a long time for a reason, even if all of that combined with Quentin's overly self-less game to cause him to fall out of Thibs' circle of trust this past season.
Yeah, I was just providing a full picture of what had happened with his minutes. He was a bench player in his rookie year that dealt with some injuries but he had shown enough that there were reports that he was being held out of the Donovan Mitchell offer and was being given the starting role over Fournier when the deal did not go through.
Unfortunately he was still working his way back from injury at the start of the next year which allowed Fournier to keep his starting role for I believe maybe a few weeks or a month until Grimes replaced him. Thibs never really trusted Reddish or Fournier for the majority of their time in New York and they were both completely removed from their bench roles by December.
Grimes minutes started to climb into the mid to high 30's but then immediately after the Hart trade his minutes nosedived to the low 20's which is understandable. They traded a non rotation player in Reddish for a 25-30 mpg player in Hart. The two least experienced players were affected the most. McBride's small role was removed from the rotation and Grimes minutes were cut. The Knicks went on a long winning streak and Thibs loved Hart.
I'm not knocking Grimes in any way but it is just the reality of what happened. I'm sure Grimes didn't go into the off-season thinking about if Brunson misses 50% of the games in this 20-25 game period and if another injury occurs to another key rotational player he may be able to average 30 minutes per game. He was probably thinking he has a 20-25 mpg role and then the Knicks happened to bring in a more experienced 20-25 mpg guy in DDV at his position. I'm sure all of the young guys were thinking who is he here to replace.
I was just confused by the push back on Grime's minutes when he went from 36, 38 OT, 38, 40 OT, 37, 39 OT, 30, 30, 37 minutes before the trade with only Mitch missing time and being replaced by Sims to 22, 22, 24, 21, 22, 21 minutes after the trade with once again only Mitch missing some time being replaced by Sims. Hart's minutes had to come from somewhere.
