Just when everyone thought that the Philadelphia 76ers are hopeless case, they managed to snag that much-needed lightning in a bottle in the form of Quentin Grimes, who has been enormously surprising for all the good reasons since setting foot in Philly.
Last night, the 76ers blew a huge lead to the second-seeded Rockets on the road, but at this point, even a choke job would not make them draw flak in view of their firm escapade to get the best lottery odds possible. Put simply, this team is really not looking to win any more games, and recent news corroborate exactly that.
Yet despite what some initially projected as an unwatchable stretch for the ball club, Grimes has given fans more than sufficient reason to stay tuned to what the team has in store on a game-to-game basis, giving them a huge silver lining to cling onto as the franchise strolls into this current state of flux.
Quentin Grimes has to fix this huge issue to make the 76ers more lethal moving forward
In 17 games for the 76ers thus far, Grimes has normed 21.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.8 assists while shooting 51 percent from the field and a blistering 39.3 percent of his three-point tries. Clearly, he has been much better than advertised.
Having said that, as part of the peanut gallery, we cannot help but notice that Grimes has not really taken a step forward in one crucial department — free-throw shooting. Grimes is going to the charity stripe much more than he ever has in the past, yet he is only draining 71.4 percent of his attempts — a perplexing figure for a player whose shooting has gotten much better across the board.
It does not amount to anything seriously concerning at this specific point in time, but for Grimes to be even more lethal for the 76ers, he has to make sure that every opportunity at the free-throw stripe counts, especially given the amount of leeway he has and could possibly continue to enjoy in the future.
As a career 75.7 percent shooter from the charity stripe, it should not be farfetched to envision him getting his percentage up to the low 80s and gradually north of that figure, by that point, he and the 76ers would be more incentivized to keep feeding him the ball and punish defenders doubling down on, say, Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid.
The Philadelphia 76ers will definitely prioritize securing Quentin Grimes for the long-term in the offseason, and to bolster that partnership, the young wing has to fool-proof his game — and that includes being an automatic swish at the free-throw line.