Report suggests Quentin Grimes could take the Sixers’ qualifying offer?!

Report suggests Quentin Grimes could take the Sixers’ qualifying offer?!

All right. Earlier this week, we had a report from longtime friend of the show and like legitimately longtime friend of the show as you, myself and Kyle all worked with him at Liberty Ballers a long time ago when we were much much younger and at least from my perspective better looking or at least younger looking. Not you. You’ve aged gracefully. Me on the other end. Anyway, regardless I got a lot of gray hairs now. Longtime friend of the show Jake Fischer came out with a report. uh he was on the Bleacher Report podcast talking about Quinton Grimes and obviously the Sixers um you know the Sixers off season has been sort of held in I won’t say hostage but certainly held up held in limbo that’s a better word for it because of the Quinton Grimes situation. Uh and Jake reported that there is some buzz about Grimes wanting to take the qualifying offer as well. Now, Jake did then follow it up by saying, “I think at the end of the day, as things get closer as we get into September and maybe even October, there will be enough synergy between Grimes and the Sixers to come to a deal.” He also says that the Sixers, you know, he can absolutely say that there are people in the organization when asked about Quinton Grimes, saying that he is their top priority and that they are going to bring Grimes back, that it’s just a matter of dollars and cents. He also says that Grimes benefits from taking a significant deal from Philadelphia. So Jake is saying that there is more talk about Grimes taking the qualifying offer, but it seems like Jake is throwing a little bit of cold water on that by saying, “Yeah, there’s some smoke, but it still seems to make the most sense that Grimes would come back.” It seems like it. We’ll get into the specifics in a second here, but the way I look at this is that Quinton Grimes, I understand why he and his agent are frustrated. Yep. With uh the current state of affairs with restricted free agency and we just did a podcast on on the hard caps and aprons and all these things which makes it a lot harder for the middle class of NBA players and I mean good NBA players like Quinton Grimes, not great NBA players, but good NBA players like Quinton Grimes to get paid. What do you think uh now that I’m thinking about it? Let’s say three or four years ago Quinton Grimes is in the same exact scenario. And are we talking about with the same like because so let’s assume that the salary cap threshold is the same is the same too. Yeah. So that’s a good point. Yeah. Because obviously the cap has gone up 15 years. No, I think he could comfortably get 15 to 20. Yeah. In today’s today’s, you know, economics, I think it would be closer to 20. Yeah. No, I think and basically like a lot of teams, even the ones with cap space like Brooklyn, haven’t gone out there and tried to make an offer. And I do think so much of this comes to like there’s just so many restrictions now with those aprons, which I’ll try my best not like to resist the urge to get deep into the weeds on that because we’re trying to keep this a relatively short podcast. But I think there’s so many teams that are concerned with those limitations now that they’re just they’re scrutinizing these moves to a degree that they never have been before. And a lot of times you would see, you know, young players coming off of rookie scale contracts, which Grimes did. I think he’s he’s made about 11 million dollars or so. 11 million dollars over four years. Yep. uh as a former 25th pick in the draft, but you would see them get pretty significant jumps in salary because even with that jump, they’re still underpaid. And I think nowadays, if you want to get that $20 million salary, you’ve there’s just a higher bar clear because you can only have so many of them on the roster because of those limitations. I think the the aprons and the new collective barn agreement has had a pretty big impact on this class of players. And because of that, you have to be just a little bit more judicious on how you give them out. So, I guess here’s the way I would break this down because Jake did mention this did get aggregated uh with Jake saying uh that there is some smoke that that he could take the qualifying offer. But if you listen to the whole segment, Jake came to the conclusion that he’s probably going to sign a contract with the Sixers, which I think makes sense from an outside perspective. But let’s go through the scenario where he does take the qualifying. What does that mean exactly? Obviously, it is a one-year deal and then he becomes an unrestricted free agent. But what are the other issues that pop up along and I think that’s pretty close to a disaster for both sides if I’m being honest. Like I don’t think that works out well for either side. You know, obviously the So if he takes a the qualifying offer, that’s a one-year $ 8.7 million contract. Now, one of the rules in the NBA, this doesn’t ti tie specifically to qualifying offers, but any any uh veteran any veteran who takes a one-year deal gets an implied no trade clause. We saw that with Kyle Lowry and Eric Gordon earlier in the offseason. They have no trade clauses in their contracts as well. It’s an automatic thing. It’s not something that gets negotiated, but it applies to Quinton Grimes here because a qualifying offer is a one-year deal. So, he gets no trade clause. So you might be thinking, all right, well, but then if he gets like, you know, let’s say he’s sitting here in the middle of the year and he wants to go to a team, a team wants to trade for him and they have interest in giving him a new contract. So he’s going to want to get to that team, force his way to that team. Can’t do it because if you wave that no trade clause, then you lose bird rights. So the acquiring team killer, it’s a killer for someone like Grimes. So then Grimes in a spot where the same bird rights that the Sixers are trying to sign him with right now. Oh, and again, bird rights allow you to resign your own player and go over the cap while doing so. So, it’s a huge deal. There aren’t very many under the cap teams unless you’re traded to like the Brooklyn Nets. Those bird rights are a massive deal. So, if you end up taking that qualifying offer, he’d be sitting here in Philadelphia on a one-year deal. He would have no prospects of being traded because his value is to bring you back with those bird rights, which he wouldn’t have. and the Sixers would be disincentivized from playing him heavy minutes because you’ve already signaled that you don’t think you’re a long-term you’re in the long-term plans of the franchise. You want to go somewhere else where they, you know, believe in you. And by believing in you, that means paying you what you feel like you are worth. Well, if that’s the case and they don’t think you’re going to want to stay here when you’re an unrestricted free agent, they’re going to prioritize the minutes of their three guards on the roster as well. So, not only do does that hurt the Sixers, and it hurts the Sixers because, you know, the Sixers, even if maybe you don’t view Grimes as a long-term piece, having him in at like a $15 million salary as a young player, a young good player, would be a significant trade ship. Well, the Sixers lose the ability to trade that because nobody’s going to value a player who they would be quiring without bird rights. The way it’s got to work for Grimes is he’s got to sign and then get traded. He cannot get traded and then sign. The order of operations is very important. Even if you don’t want to be in, let’s say, let’s say he’s of the mindset where he doesn’t want to be in Philadelphia long term because he knows there’s three young guards are trying to develop. We can argue whether or not he should be of that mindset and I’m not reporting that he is of that mindset, but of the hypothetical, let’s say that he is viewing it that way. The order of operations is you sign the guaranteed money and then you become a problem and get the team that you want to go to, not become a problem before signing that contract. Because if you have to take that qualifying offer, I do think it hurts both sides significantly. It would also hurt the Sixers just looking back at their off season. If Grimes took an eight million dollar deal, they could have afforded Gershon Yabuselli and not found uh that second apron and all those restrictions. They could have brought him back. And you know, if you go back to the beginning of free agency, Gershon Yabuselli was like, “The Sixers really didn’t make me an offer.” And Daryl my record saying, “Yeah, we had to figure out the Quinton Grimes thing.” And and that was with the idea that they were going to sign him to a deal worth more money. And if you also wanted to get more sinister, let’s say the Sixers basically called his bluff and said, “Okay, you don’t want to be here, but you’re still not in a great spot with that qualifying offer. We’re not going to play you that much.” And then we’ll resign you at an even lower sort of sort of price. So, it makes a lot of sense for Quinton Grimes to take whatever the best deal possible is. And it’s I I understand the idea that it stinks. In in past years, he probably would have been taken care of a little bit faster. uh he would have been a more in- demand free agent. He might have even had more options to uh for places to sign. But as Jake mentioned in his initial reporting and as you mentioned earlier, he has only made $11 million in his career. That’s a lot of money to you and me. But Quinton Grimes is probably going to get offered a deal where he makes more than $1 million in every year of this contract. I would be surprised if it isn’t that if it isn’t close to that $15 million range. We can quibble about where it ends up, but it’s it’s going to be more than $11 million because like you said, the Sixers are incentivized to bump that number up to a nice mid-tier salary. So, they are able to attach picks and Grimes to be able to get other players if this crowded back court does not have room for Quinton Grimes in the future. The other thing I would say, past NBA history, we glorify guys who bet on themselves. Fred Van Vleet is always talking about how he is Mr. bet on himself. And by the way, for Fred Van Vleet, like great for him. That’s that’s an amazing success story. And I love when the scenario goes where the player bets on himself, they ball out, and then they get paid. That is really cool. The opposite is often true though, and and those players are taking a gigantic risk. And the best example we have, Nerland Noel, after the Sixers traded him to Dallas, same exact year Quinton Grimes was in, it was post- rookie contract, you know, offered what, like four years, like 60 million, 70 million, something like that. 70 million. Four four years, $70 million. And he actually moved agents that year to Rich Paul, I believe. And it was reported that uh that he met Rich Paul at Ben Simmons birthday party. We’re getting a little bit off track here, but yeah, pretty interesting sequence of events. And Rich Paul, according to Nerland Noel, said, “You know what? We’re not going to take that uh that offer because we think you can make more in future years.” And we know all of this because Neurolins Noel did not fall out and he made about $12 million over those few years. And then he sued Rich Paul and said, “You cost me $58 million with your bad advice.” I don’t think it’s going to be quite that situation with Quinton Grimes. He should still retain a level of value, but things can go wrong. You never know. And I think he is gonna be due a decent payday. And the most logical situation is for him and the Sixers, whether it’s three years, four years, two plus one, whatever, for them to come to an agreement and sign, you know, a $14 million deal, $16 million deal, whatever it is. And I think, sorry, and I think there are some people who are going to be watching this and thinking like, great, we can get him that $8.7 million. That will give the Sixers flexibility. It’ll give them some flexibility under the aprons. And more specifically, it’ll give you flexibility to use that taxpayer mid-level exception, which is like $5.7 million. Doesn’t matter. The most important thing here is because of the all the salary cap rules and having to match salaries in trades. You need matching salary. So, right now, you basically have Kelly Ubé Jr. and Andre Drummond, that’s about what, like $12 million in matching salary. If you could add Quinton Grimes in there at about $15 million all of a sudden along with the draft picks you have, you have a lot of resources to go out there and make a trade. If you don’t have Quinton Grimes and if you don’t have that, because again with the with the uh qualifying offer, you pretty much can’t trade it. He would have to agree to it. Even so, if he does agree to a trade, he wouldn’t have any actual trade value in a deal. It would be a lot tougher to make a move at the deadline if there is something out there that you like. So even if you don’t want Quinton Grimes, you lose flexibility if he doesn’t sign here and you lose flexibility if he you lose a lot of flexibility if he takes that qualifying offer. So we think he’s going to be back, right? Yeah, I think this is and I I guess to wrap this up, I would be stunned if he takes a qualifying offer and in mostly because I think that would be the exact worst move he could make. I don’t think that is going to get him the contract he wants next summer. I think this is, you know, there’s a lot of free agents, restricted free agents out there right now who have not gotten the offers that they expect from Jonathan Kaminga, the Josh Giddy, Cam Thomas, and Quinton Grimes. I think this is a leverage play, but I think it’s a threat that brings a little bit hollow because I just don’t think it helps him accomplish his goals. And, you know, is he missing out on maybe some some of the team bonding exercises with Tyrese Maxi? Sure. But as long as he is signed before the year, uh even if there is a little bit of uh feet dragging here, it’ll be okay. I I think as long as he’s here before the start of the year, Quinton Grimes will be a decent he’ll he’ll be an important part of this team. Obviously, it’ll be a little bit of a weird situation with the other three young guards here as well. But Quinton Grimes, you can play him up a little bit. If he does sign that contract, like you said, the Sixers will be incentivized to play him. Number one, to see how he fits with all those guys and also for him to keep his value up. Yep. No, I think the my biggest takeaway from that report wasn’t that there was buzz that he could take the qualifying offer. It’s that as we get into September and maybe even closer to October, there will be enough synergy. That suggests we could be talking about this Quinton Grimes situation for quite a while. October would be a little too long. A little too long. Get get me at least sometime in early September. Fine. All right. This has been the PHLY Sixers show brought to you as always by Rothman Orthopedics. We will be back here on Well, you and I won’t be back here. I will be on vacation. Rich has been spending the last week having to deal with me and talking Sixers. Devon and Kyle will be back here on Monday to talk some more basketball with you.

A report from Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report said that there was buzz around the league that Quentin Grimes might take the qualifying offer from the Sixers, a move which would bring him back to the Philadelphia 76ers on a 1-year deal, but would make him an unrestricted free agent next summer. Is this a realistic possibility, or just a threat that Grimes and his camp are using for leverage on the Sixers? Plus, Derek and Rich go over what changes they would make to improve the NBA’s on-court product.

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