May 24, 2026
Now that the 2025-26 Sixers season is complete after a thrilling first-round series comeback and a jarring second-round sweep, it is time to reflect on the year that was.
Welcome to Sixers year-in-review, where each player's campaign will be analyzed with a combination of statistics, film and reporting.
Up next: Quentin Grimes, who after a fruitless trip to restricted free agency last summer had to play on his qualifying offer. Grimes had an up-and-down campaign, looking like a Sixth Man of the Year candidate early and the season and helping power the Sixers' success with three-guard lineups. As the year went on, he experienced more and more trouble consistently impacting winning, in part because of an uncharacteristically poor year as a three-point shooter.
In search of a pay day, Grimes will hit unrestricted free agency this summer. What are the pros and cons of bringing him back into the fold?
SIXERS YEAR-IN-REVIEW
Joel Embiid | Tyrese Maxey | Paul George | Andre Drummond | Quentin Grimes
Grimes is a quality rotation player, not a building block.
After being acquired by the Sixers at the trade deadline in 2025, Grimes went on a two-month tear. Despite having very little NBA-caliber talent around him, Grimes scored at will, doing so efficiently at all three levels. His scoring outbursts largely came in losing efforts, but for a player the Sixers traded for in hopes of adding a high-level off-ball role player, his on-ball scoring chops represented a massive revelation.
Some will scoff at the above takeaway, arguing that Grimes never should have been seen as anything more than a helpful rotation piece. But heading into this season, even with Tyrese Maxey in place and rookie VJ Edgecombe set to receive every opportunity to prove himself, there was an expectation that Grimes could be one of this team's single most productive players.
Early in the year, that seemed plausible; Grimes was routinely knocking down clutch shots and serving in an extremely valuable defensive role which enabled head coach Nick Nurse to get his best possible lineups on the floor including all three of Maxey, Edgecombe and Grimes.
It's almost impossible to have a stronger two-way close to a game than Quentin Grimes did in the Sixers' win over Washington on Wednesday night. Grimes made five shots in the last nine minutes of regulation & was a constant pest on the defensive end of the floor down the stretch: pic.twitter.com/qn3fQGW8id
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) October 29, 2025
The closer the Sixers looked to their best selves later the year, the more likely Grimes was not a featured part of anything they were doing. It is not that he is not a good player, but he faded into the background a considerable amount during the year. Even during a playoff run in which he only had one standout performance in 11 games – a Game 5 gem in Boston to help stay alive against the Celtics – Grimes was one of only six players Nurse could truly trust to play.
Grimes' combination of defensive ability across the perimeter positional spectrum and track record of strong spot-up three-point shooting makes him a player easy to imagine fitting in as part of any roster. But his delayed decision-making and erratic play with the ball in his hands makes it a bit less clean.
Grimes is unquestionably a viable rotation player in the playoffs and regular season. But the upside he flashed late last season evaporated in 2025-26.
MORE: Takeaways from Josh Harris/Bob Myers press conference
Grimes' three-point percentage: 33.4
To be fair, when it comes to the point above the conversation might have been at least somewhat different had Grimes made as many three-point shots this season as he usually has. Grimes had the worst three-point shooting season of his five-year NBA career:
| Season | Team(s) | Three-point attempts | Three-point percentage |
| NYK | 2021-22 | 189 | 38.1% |
| NYK | 2022-23 | 407 | 38.6% |
| NYK/DET | 2023-24 | 240 | 33.8% |
| DAL/PHI | 2024-25 | 421 | 38.5% |
| PHI | 2025-26 | 380 | 33.4% |
Between the difficulty of the shots Grimes often takes, his comfort firing away off the dribble and the fact that he has hovered around 80 percent on free throws in his career, there is plenty of evidence to suggest Grimes' 33.4 percent mark on threes in 2025-26 was an outlier. He is a gifted shot-maker, and it is a relatively safe bet that it will be evident next season. But Grimes stagnating as a scorer and playmaker puts more pressure on him to avoid down years from beyond the arc.
Grimes on whether or not his frustrating experience in restricted free agency created any ill will from him towards the Sixers, Oct. 8:
"No, not at all. I’m here to play basketball. I try to control what I can control and that’s how hard I go in the gym, preparation-wise, working out my body, and I leave [contractual matters] up to my agent and the front office. Hopefully, I’ll be able to be back here longer. I wanted to be back here on a longer-term deal, but I’m happy to be here right now and do everything I can to help this team win."
MORE: Trading Tyrese Maxey to start over would be crazy... right?
How will the Sixers value Grimes' production relative to the rest of the league?
The Sixers could keep both Grimes and Kelly Oubre Jr. in free agency this summer, but it would put them in a much more manageable position relative to the luxury tax threshold if they simply pick one over the other. Oubre was the one whose role was more significant this season, both in the regular season and playoffs. Grimes, because he is considerably younger and a much better three-point shooter, might have a higher price tag.
Even if many natural indicators would point to Grimes departing, the Sixers have Full Bird rights on the 26-year-old. That matters a great deal here, as it allows them to offer him any amount of money as long as they are not hard-capped. As opposed to last summer's barren market with only one team possessing significant cap space, this should be a decent market for Grimes. But in today's salary cap environment, teams have even more of an advantage when it comes to retaining Full Bird free agents.
It is worth asking, too, how much Grimes wants to be back in Philadelphia. Even before considering how miserable his summer was last year in Daryl Morey's last offseason as Sixers President of Basketball Operations, it would be fair for Grimes' new representation to argue that sticking with the Sixers is not in his best long-term interest. He has no upward mobility in terms of role; he is never going to advance past Maxey or Edgecombe in the pecking order.
It would be easier to stomach that sort of downside if playing for the Sixers was going to give Grimes a significant platform to boost his stock around the league in the form of considerable playoff opportunity, and that is far from a guarantee. But money always talks.
MORE: Sixers mock draft roundup 3.0
