The Philadelphia 76ers, when healthy, have one of the deepest rosters in the league. They have very interchangeable players coming off the bench, and their starting unit packs a ton of raw talent. However, injuries have prevented them from fully realizing the potential of their second unit, although Quentin Grimes was the one constant for the team outside of their opening group.
Averaging nearly 30 minutes per outing in the regular season, Grimes was a guarantee to get just as many minutes in the playoffs especially with the 76ers in dire need of more sources of scoring. However, to the surprise of many, Nick Nurse and his staff have given him relatively meager minutes as of late, seemingly sending a message to the guard for his lack of aggressiveness in recent outings.
In Game 3 of their first-round playoff series against the Celtics, the 76ers deployed Grimes for just a hair under 15 minutes. He scored just two points built on a couple of free throws, grabbed four boards, and dished one dime, finishing the game as a -8 in his limited playing time. Grimes never played that little in the regular season, so for it to come in the playoffs is definitely saying something.
The 76ers send a loud message to Quentin Grimes after handing him lesser playing time
Strangely enough, Grimes has been lackadaisical on the scoring department since the regular season ended. Including their play-in tournament game against Orlando, he has tallied just 19 points combined in four postseason contests. For the sake of reference, he racked up 20 markers in their final regular season game alone.
The 76ers badly need more scoring from Grimes, their nominal sixth man, but he has not given them anything close to his normal level of production. For some reason, he has become trigger-shy, which is not helping the team at all. Now, the Celtics are starting to realize just how predictable the team's offense can get.
As an impending free agent, Grimes ought to know better than to put on stale performances in the playoffs. If he keeps this up, it would be way easier to envision the 76ers moving on from him and not even showing interest in retaining his services. His demand for a more handsome payday could likewise be in peril.
Philly is behind in their first-round series once again, and if Quentin Grimes keeps refusing to show up, the coaches will be compelled to let him linger on the bench for longer than he is used to. But more importantly, this is basically a form of self-sabotage he should be trying to avoid in the first place given his contract situation.
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