The Lakers gave Quentin Grimes a four-year, $60 million deal in July, per Shams Charania of ESPN. That makes him the fourth-highest-paid player on the team. JJ Redick still opened camp by calling the lineup open: “There’s a lot of minutes, there’s starting spots that are up for grabs.” Redick is selling a competition, but the evidence points to Grimes as the starting wing. The real fight is over the fifth spot.
The Roster Has Exactly One Wing Built for This Job
Redick has said he’s “pretty confident” in three of the spots: Dončić, Reaves and Kessler. That leaves a starting group with two high-usage creators and a center, and it needs a wing who can guard the other team’s best perimeter player and punish defenses that collapse on Dončić. Grimes is the only candidate who credibly does both.
Grimes has spent most of his career as a three-and-D player, knocking down 36.6% of 5.1 three-point tries per game. He also has a ceiling none of his rivals can match. During a 28-game stretch with Philadelphia in 2024-25, he took on a primary offensive role and averaged 21.9 points and 4.5 assists per game on relatively efficient shooting (.469/.373/.752). As a career starter, he has posted 14.0 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.6 assists with 45.7/36.5/77.8 shooting splits. He has been better with the first unit than off the bench.
Grimes has also said what he sees as his job. At media day he told reporters, per Yahoo Sports, that his responsibility is defensive and that he wants to guard the best player every night. That is exactly the role a lineup with Dončić and Reaves needs filled.
The Shooting Dip and the Philadelphia Defense Are Fair Concerns
The strongest case against Grimes comes from last season. He put up 13.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 0.9 steals on 45/33.4/84 shooting splits, mostly coming off the bench for the 76ers. A 33% three-point shooter is a problem next to Dončić. His point-of-attack defense, the skill the Lakers say they signed him for, also slipped in Philadelphia compared with his Knicks years.
The alternatives each fix one problem and create another. Matisse Thybulle is the pure stopper, a 2× NBA All-Defensive Second Team selection, but he is coming off injury-riddled seasons and has never been a reliable shooter. Ziaire Williams has length but hasn’t fully broken through. Jake LaRavia has the strongest incumbent case: he started 43 games for the Lakers last season, sixth most on the roster, while appearing in all 82. LaRavia is a forward, though, and he isn’t really competing for the wing.
The case against Grimes is a case against one season of shooting. His track record before that season argues the other way.
The Real Competition Is for the Fifth Spot
Grimes should start, and only a bad preseason should change that. His career three-point percentage, his production as a starter and the money the Lakers paid all point the same way. Redick has every reason to keep the competition open for motivation, and Grimes has gone along with it. Dan Woike of The Athletic reported that Grimes said he 100 percent wants to start, and he told Yahoo Sports, “I want to fight for [a starting spot], I want to earn it.”
That doesn’t make the competition fake. It means the open question is the other spot, and that is where LaRavia, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Thybulle are actually competing. Redick joked that “The other two spots will not be two white guys,” which rules out pairing LaRavia with Mamukelashvili. That leaves one spot for the forwards to fight over, and Grimes is the likeliest name for the other.
Two things would change this verdict. One is Grimes’s three-point shooting staying near 33% into the season. The other is Thybulle staying healthy and guarding well enough that Redick decides defense matters more than spacing. Neither has happened yet, and until one does, Grimes is the Lakers’ starting wing.
Source: a four-year, $60 million deal
Leave a Reply