NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 01: Quentin Grimes #5 of the Philadelphia 76ers looks on during the third quarter of the game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on April 01, 2025 in New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)
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More than three months after entering restricted free agency, Quentin Grimes finally signed a contract Wednesday. Rather than reaching a long-term deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, he instead accepted his one-year, $8.7 million qualifying offer, which guarantees that he’ll become an unrestricted free agent next offseason.
The timing of Grimes’ foray into free agency couldn’t have been much worse. He was fresh off a late-season breakout upon his arrival in Philadelphia at the trade deadline, but the Brooklyn Nets were the only team this summer with significant salary-cap space. When they spent most of their flexibility on acquiring unwanted contracts from other teams, Grimes was left without a realistic suitor aside from the Sixers.
Grimes reportedly went into the offseason looking for a deal in the $30-million-per-year range, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, which was a non-starter for the Sixers. Before re-signing Grimes, they were less than $22 million away from the second apron. To maintain access to the $5.7 million taxpayer mid-level exception, the Sixers couldn’t afford a starting salary north of $16 million on Grimes’ new deal. As a result, the two sides “never found traction on a new agreement this offseason,” according to Charania.
Grimes was reportedly open to a one-year balloon deal that would have required him to waive his right to veto any trade, albeit one in the $14-19 million range, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Grimes’ agent, David Bauman, told Charania that the Sixers only offered him a one-year, $8.8 million deal—$100,000 more than his qualifying offer—to buy out his veto rights. He said they also shot down a one-year, $17 million framework and a two-year, $34 million deal with a second-year player option.
After putting up 21.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game during his 28 games with the Sixers last year, it’s understandable why Grimes was looking to cash in this summer. He’ll now need to prove that production wasn’t a late-season mirage on an injury-ravaged team that was circling the drain on a lost season to merit the type of payday he’s reportedly eyeing.
The Risk Grimes Is Taking With His Qualifying Offer
If the Sixers truly didn’t offer Grimes more than a four-year, $39 million deal—which is effectively his $8.7 million qualifying offer with 8% annual raises—it makes sense why he would instead choose to bet on himself. After all, the Miami Heat just signed Nikola Jović to a fully guaranteed four-year, $62.4 million extension on Wednesday, according to Charania, and Jović hasn’t been anywhere near as productive as Grimes was in Philly.
This past season, Jović set career highs by averaging 10.7 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.7 made threes in 25.1 minutes per game with Miami. He’s three years younger than Grimes—and their production over the first three years of their respective careers is roughly in lockstep—but that speaks to why Grimes should reasonably expect more than $10 million per year on his next deal.
However, he’s taking on an enormous risk to secure that type of a contract. All it takes is one ill-timed injury to submarine his future earning potential. Just ask DeMarcus Cousins and Isaiah Thomas.
Even if Grimes stays healthy, he doesn’t project to have nearly as prominent of a role on this year’s Sixers as he did on last season’s squad. Regardless of whether Joel Embiid and Paul George miss time throughout the year, the Sixers have Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain and VJ Edgecombe, whom they just spent the No. 3 overall pick on in the 2025 NBA draft, flanking Grimes in the backcourt. If they suspect that Grimes is likely to leave after this season, the Sixers now have more incentive to prioritize the development of Edgecombe and McCain, too.
No one should reasonably expect Grimes to replicate his late-season production from the 2024-25 campaign unless a tidal wave of injuries wipes out half of the Sixers’ roster again. However, not doing so could limit his future earning potential. If he puts up numbers similar to what he was in Dallas prior to the trade—10.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.7 threes in 22.8 minutes per game—he might be looking at deals in the non-taxpayer mid-level exception range at best next summer.
This past offseason, Caris LeVert—who’s averaged 13.9 points, 4.0 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game across his nine-year NBA career—settled for a two-year, $28.9 million deal via the non-taxpayer MLE with the Atlanta Hawks. Perhaps that was just a byproduct of the lack of cap space around the league, but teams are also becoming more cautious with their spending given the draconian penalties for expensive rosters under the NBA’s latest collective bargaining agreement.
The Upside Of 2026 Free Agency
The silver lining for Grimes is that “at least 10 teams are slated to have significant salary-cap space” next offseason, according to Charania. The free-agent pool has already gotten whittled down with Luka Dončić, De’Aaron Fox and Jaren Jackson Jr. all agreeing to extensions this offseason, and additional rookie-scale extensions between now and Oct. 20 figure to deplete it even further.
With that in mind, the NBA’s new salary-floor rules might be the best chip in Grimes’ pocket. Teams now have to reach the salary floor—90% of the salary cap—by the opening day of the regular season. Under the previous CBA, they had until the final day of the regular season to do so, which allowed them to go into the year with significant cap space to facilitate midseason salary dumps.
Even if Grimes doesn’t land a long-term deal in the $20-25 million range, some team might be desperate enough to hit the salary floor that it’s willing to overpay him on a one- or two-year balloon deal. That’s exactly what the Indiana Pacers did with Bruce Brown Jr. in 2023, and they later used his contract as salary ballast in their midseason trade for Pascal Siakam. That deal resulted in two straight Eastern Conference Finals appearances and a trip to the 2025 NBA Finals, where they came within one game of winning a championship.
That leaguewide financial landscape may be what Grimes is banking on. However, one ill-timed injury could submarine his chances of landing a major payday. Former Sixers center Nerlens Noel is a cautionary tale in that regard.
Noel reportedly turned down a four-year, $70 million offer from the Dallas Mavericks on the opening day of free agency in 2017. The Mavericks then pulled the offer, and Noel ended up taking his one-year, $4.1 million qualifying offer instead. After he scuffled through an injury-ravaged season, he had to settle for a two-year, veteran-minimum contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder the following summer.
Noel did rehabilitate his value in OKC and eventually cashed in with the New York Knicks, although his big payday didn’t come until he was two years removed from his first trip into unrestricted free agency. There’s no guarantee that Grimes will suffer a similar fate, but it’s a risk he’s taking by refusing to meet in the middle with the Sixers.
He now has nine months to prove that it was a worthy gamble.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.
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