Quentin Grimes finally made his season debut for the Knicks, but it was a short stint in the closing minutes Wednesday night after he’d missed the first six games of the season with a sore foot.
The second-year guard didn’t score over the final 4:38 of the fourth quarter of the Knicks’ 112-99 loss to the Hawks at the Garden.
Cam Reddish remained for now in the team’s 10-man rotation, with Tom Thibodeau saying afterward he just wanted to “let [Grimes] see where he is.”
Grimes has been limited since the start of training camp with foot soreness, aggravating the injury during a 16-minute stint in his lone preseason appearance against Washington on Oct. 14.
“I think it was just over time, and he never quite felt right,” Thibodeau said. “It was early in the season, and our thought process was let’s get him right, now, instead of having something that lingers all season.”
Grimes, the No. 25-overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, averaged 6.0 points in 17.1 minutes per game over 46 appearances as a rookie last season, and Thibodeau often has praised him as a two-way player and for his ability as one of the team’s top perimeter defenders.
“Obviously he missed a lot of time. So he’ll be situational to start,” Thibodeau said. “So if your matchup is a guy off the dribble, he’s good at that. He’s also very good at catch-and-shoot, locking and trailing people, staying attached. … He’s a fierce competitor, and we need that.”
Reddish’s previous NBA coach believes he can be a better fit with the Knicks than he was with the Hawks. The 23-year-old Reddish had appeared in each of the Knicks’ first seven games of the season, averaging 7.9 points and 18.2 minutes per game.
“He got more of an opportunity this year,” Hawks coach Nate McMillan said of Reddish. “Cam has a lot of potential. He’s a wing that can play the two and three, shoots the ball and defends the ball. I think he fits into the style of play as far as defensively. He takes pride in defending and he takes a challenge. I think Thibs likes guys like that.”
Credit: Source link
