A Full Breakdown of the Quentin Grimes-Caleb Martin Trade
The first move of the 2025 trade deadline is here.
Let me take you back to the most impressive moment of Quentin Grimes’ young career. It’s May of 2023, and the Miami Heat hold a 3-1 series lead over the New York Knicks. The Knicks have a six-point lead with just under two minutes left in Game 5, but the Heat are rallying behind Jimmy Butler. That’s when Grimes gets clipped hard by a Bam Adebayo screen, and immediately falls to the floor while holding his left leg.
He then gets up and makes a game-saving play:
On Tuesday, the Sixers traded for that very same Quentin Grimes, sending the Dallas Mavericks Caleb Martin in return. Additionally, the Sixers also had their 2025 second-round draft pick returned to their control, having originally given away said pick in their trade for George Hill all the way back in 2021.
Grimes is appropriately tagged with a label that’s bestowed on many NBA role players: He’s a 3-and-D guy. Through nearly four seasons, 67.8% of his total shot attempts have been three-pointers, while his ferocious on-ball defense is what originally got him minutes as a first- and second-year player with Tom Thibodeau’s Knicks.
He was traded to the Pistons midway through the 2023-24 season, and following an increasingly brutal stint in Detroit, he was quickly moved to Dallas in exchange for Tim Hardaway Jr. and three second-round picks. Grimes’ 47 games as a Maverick were some of the best of his career, as he’s averaging more than 10 points per game while shooting just under 40% from deep, and was insulating an offensively slanted Dallas backcourt with his defense.
He’s not much of a creator for others, as his handle and passing are just a bit too static for him to fully bend and manipulate a set defense. However, playing off advantage-creating superstars, like Kyrie Irving and somehow former Maverick Luka Doncic, Grimes can excel as a play finisher.
Grimes is a career 38.8% shooter on 874 catch-and-shoot three-point attempts, a significantly better mark than the 31.1% he’s shot on 193 career off-the-dribble three-point attempts, per Synergy. He’s got a quick release, and launches the ball from a high set point above his head, allowing him to nail some triples in spite of having a hand in his face.
Worth noting: This has been far and away the best off-the-dribble three-point shooting season of Grimes’ career. He was 35-for-140 (25%) on off-the-dribble entering the 2024-25 campaign, yet this year, is shooting a stellar 25-for-53 (47.2%) on the exact same type of shots. He’s still much more of a play finisher, who would sooner shoot than put the ball on the floor, but he’s started to show that he has more self-creation upside than most pundits originally thought.
Defensively, Grimes is a bit of a unique mover. He consistently chops his feet so hard that it’s almost as if he’s doing it for dramatic effect, and he takes the idea of getting your chest into someone very literally. It’s a physical, aggressive style that has served him well throughout his young NBA career.
None of this is to say Grimes is a perfect player. He’s susceptible to the same pitfalls other physical on-ball defenders face, where quicker opponents can take advantage of his aggression and burst past him to the rim if he guesses wrong on which way to slide. Not to mention, there’s a reason the 3-and-D label is more often given to wings than guards: Wings have more margin for error with their ample height. They aren’t punished as easily as guards are when they lack self-creation chops, and can instead just focus on taking open shots and playing defense (just like Justin Edwards has been doing the past month).
Still, Grimes is a solid piece, bringing a jolt of athleticism, shotmaking and youth to a Sixers team that could use all three of those attributes.
Of course, it’s not like the Sixers picked Grimes up for free. Losing Martin isn’t nothing. Following a rough start to the season where he was very clearly playing through a significant injury, Martin heated up to shoot 50% from three over his last 11 games with the team. Most notably, he solidified his reputation as a Celtics killer on Christmas day, with a 23-point performance that brought back memories of 1982 Andrew Toney.
Martin was probably one of the players who fans reasonably could’ve expected to stay put through the deadline. The Sixers made a hefty commitment to him with a four-year, $35 million contract last summer, giving him far more years of team control than other players who are often in trade rumors. Likewise, with Martin being a proven playoff performer, it was reasonable the Sixers would hang onto him for the following seasons when they might not be stricken with injuries from the jump.
Who the current better player is depends on who you ask; arguing in favor of Grimes or Martin surpassing the other is perfectly understandable in both directions. Those two are roughly the same caliber of player, especially based on their performances through the first half of this season. But when you add in that a) this trade was a financial boon for the Sixers, and b) the team got its second-round pick back, it makes a lot of sense from their side.
I’ll let someone smarter than me explain exactly how this trade impacted the Sixers from a salary cap perspective, but TLDR: The deal saved them money, and they’ve now ducked under the first apron tax. That’s significant in a new era where franchises are essentially sent to player acquisition jail for going over the apron a few too many times.
As for the draft (something that I both know and care more about), the return of the Sixers’ own second-rounder is quite nice, especially if you subscribe to the idea that the season is already lost, and that the Sixers might be better off punting things to next year. Instead of dealing with the whims of a second-round pick dependent on another team’s performance, the Sixers control where this new pick ends up, and how they’d like to use it once its position is finalized.
And if there’s one thing this front office has excelled at under Daryl Morey, it’s landing solid young players outside of the first round of the draft. Just in the past four years, Isaiah Joe, Paul Reed, Charles Bassey, Ricky Council, Adem Bona, and Justin Edwards were all acquired by this team either with a second-round pick or with a quick UDFA signing following the draft’s conclusion. Give the Sixers a pick in the 30-45 range, and odds are, they can find an NBA player.
Deciding which team won the trade is impossible right now: It won’t be clear until everyone sees how Martin looks in Dallas, as well as if the Sixers sign Grimes to a new deal next summer to keep him in Philly, and how Morey and Co. end up using the pick. But it’s a rational deal, with the Sixers taking a gamble on a younger player who might surpass what Martin has been in the NBA in due time, while also saving some cash and restocking the picks in the war chest. It’s not a seismic, landscape-shifting move, but it’s one that definitely matters for the future of the team, and one that has a good chance to turn out positively in the long term.
Daniel Olinger is a writer for the Rights To Ricky Sanchez, and author of “The Danny” column, even though he refuses to be called that in person. He can be followed on X @dan_olinger.
“The Danny” is brought to you by the Official Realtor Of The Process, Adam Ksebe.
Thanks for the breakdown, Danny.
Under this new CBA, it seems like 2nd rounders are so much more valuable, even more than most 1st round picks. Talent selection & projection is just so hard to do already that most teams would likely rather have multiple 2nd rounders at a lower upfront costs than non-lottery 1st rounders. This allows them to really find/develop a hidden gem or two with minimal financial commitments. It's an effective way to fill out the back end of your roster if you have the right player development staff in place.