It seems like there is more than what meets the eye when it comes to the stance the Philadelphia 76ers took as they charted the waters of their delicate restricted free agency situation with Quentin Grimes.
Ultimately, the young wing failed — resoundingly failed — to get what he and his camp wanted from Day 1. After several months of snail-paced negotiations which yielded several rounds of impasse, in the end, Grimes was only able to muster nothing. He was compelled to take the 76ers’ qualifying offer amounting to around $8.7 million, narrowly avoiding the deadline to do so.
That has got to hurt for Grimes and his representation, who have been eager about their chances of urging the 76ers to hand them a rich payday. Grimes, after all, put up a mini-breakout stint late last season when the team was depleted due to injuries, and there was no one else but the 25-year-old who could make the squad a tad more watchable.
However, it seems like the 76ers actually had a legitimate reason as to why they never mounted a tasteful offer to Grimes, at least according to a certain NBA analyst.
The 76ers had a justified reason for lowballing Quentin Grimes in free agency
According to John Hollinger, Philly wanted to stay under the first apron, and a $10 million contract below kept them just under that mark. True enough, it did not even cost them that much to keep Grimes, meaning that the front office succeeded in avoiding the first apron.
Now, why would a team so ambitious and eager to prove that it can still contend suddenly become a cheapskate? Well, as people already know from some teams that started dismantling their very expensive rosters this summer, breaching the tax aprons comes with significant repercussions, and it simply makes sense for Philly to avoid being in that precarious situation given that its costly lineup will not get cheaper anytime soon, either.
Grimes will play a vital role for Philadelphia this season, there is no doubt about that. And while people will believe, albeit understandably, that Daryl Morey and the front office are not staying faithful to the win-now edict they operating under, they cannot afford to stack another questionable deal atop the couple of bad ones they already have.
For better or for worse, Quentin Grimes is most probably going to end up being a short-term player for the 76ers.