LOS ANGELES — Quentin Grimes took a stray shot from Kevin Durant’s frustrations.
Following Phoenix’s 139-122 defeat Friday night to the Knicks — which represented Durant’s first defeat to New York in over a decade — the future Hall of Famer turned a question about stopping 3-point shooters and Jalen Brunson into a rant on Grimes’ deficiencies.
“Shooters get up to [Brunson] and make him dribble. Like, what’s his name? Quentin Grimes,” Durant said. “Like he can’t get six threes up. He doesn’t dribble at all. He doesn’t have any free throws on the season. He doesn’t have any assists, it feels like. But he’s getting 3s up? That’s the stuff we can’t have. It’s frustrating but we’ll figure it out.”
Grimes, the backup guard, finished with nine points in 15 minutes on 3-for-6 shooting from beyond the arc.
As Durant alluded to, Grimes has mostly been a spot-up shooter this season while averaging 1.2 assists with, most alarmingly, just five free-throw attempts on the season.
The 23-year-old expressed frustration with that role almost two weeks ago and was moved from the starting lineup to the second unit, where he’s had more opportunities with the ball.
Heading into Saturday night’s game against the Clippers, Grimes’ averaged 10.8 points on eight attempts with 1.3 assists over the four games since moving to the bench — all above his numbers as a starter this season.
But Durant deemed it unacceptable to allow Grimes the space to take shots, let alone score.
Perhaps that helps explain why Grimes was so eager to leave the starting lineup for an expanded offensive role if Durant’s comments have become the narrative of his game.
The Suns (13-12), meanwhile, have been a disappointment this season. The loss to the Knicks was their fourth in five games.
“They made shots, turned hot and aggressive, killed us in the pick and roll,” Durant said of the Knicks. “And that was the game.”
Tom Thibodeau’s center rotation without Mitchell Robinson seems pretty clear.
Jericho Sims gets the start, Isaiah Hartenstein gets the bulk of the minutes, and Taj Gibson is the insurance policy.
It worked out that way in the Suns’ victory, with Hartenstein logging 31 minutes, Sims getting 17, and Gibson making his season debut for a minute of garbage time.
Hartenstein’s three blocks was a season high.
“I said this to everyone: the hard thing was Mitchell was playing so well and it probably impacted Isaiah in the sense that he didn’t get it probably as many minutes as he should have or could have,” Thibodeau said.
Robinson underwent ankle surgery Tuesday and will be re-evaluated in 8-to-10 weeks.
The Knicks were then out-rebounded in Wednesday’s loss to the Jazz, but did better on the boards against Phoenix.
Though the analytics suffer with Sims in the starting lineup, Thibodeau said he’s more concerned with the team’s record and overall impact on every lineup.
Heading into Saturday’s game against the Clippers — and going back to last season — the Knicks were 11-8 with Sims as the starter.
“The winning is the most important thing,” Thibodeau said.
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