The Fantasy Basketball Encyclopedia

Player Dossier · Los Angeles Lakers

Quentin Grimes

Quentin Grimes projects as the starting two-way wing, a useful late-round threes-and-steals profile whose ceiling depends on gaining creation work.

2026-27 projection

GP MPG FG% (FGA) FT% (FTA) 3PM PTS REB AST STL BLK TO
72 30 .450 (10.4) .845 (3.0) 2.1 14.2 3.7 3.2 1.0 0.4 1.7

Projection logic

Grimes averaged 13.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 0.9 steals, and 1.7 threes in 29.4 minutes over 75 games in 2025-26, shooting .450 from the field and .840 at the line. The Lakers need his point-of-attack defense and movement shooting next to Dončić and Reaves, giving him the clearest 30-minute wing route on the roster. The median adds a little three-point volume but does not assume his brief high-usage flashes become a permanent role. ESPN player statistics

Redraft, dynasty, and scenarios

Confidence

Sources

Career record

Pre-NBA: Three college seasons. Kansas, 2018-19: 36 games and 36 starts, 27.4 MPG, 8.4 PTS, 2.5 REB, 2.0 AST on .384 FG / .340 3P / .603 FT — a five-star recruit whose freshman year underdelivered badly. He transferred to Houston and improved in each of two seasons: 2019-20, 30 games, 27.9 MPG, 12.1 PTS, 3.7 REB, 2.6 AST, .443 / .326 / .660; 2020-21, 30 games, 32.8 MPG, 17.8 PTS, 5.7 REB, 2.0 AST, 1.4 STL on .406 / .403 / .788, leading Houston to the Final Four. Third-team All-American, AAC Co-Player of the Year and AAC tournament MVP in 2021. He was also MVP of the 2018 FIBA Under-18 Americas Championship. The junior-year jump from .326 to .403 on threes, with a full point of steals added, is what turned him from a disappointing recruit into a first-round pick. Draft: 2021, first round, 25th overall by the Los Angeles Clippers; traded to New York on draft night along with a second-round pick.

Season Age Team GP MPG PTS REB AST STL BLK 3PM FG% FT% TO
2021-22 21 NYK 46 17.1 6.0 2.0 1.0 0.7 0.2 1.6 .404 .684 0.6
2022-23 22 NYK 71 29.9 11.3 3.2 2.1 0.7 0.4 2.2 .468 .796 1.0
2023-24 23 NYK/DET 51 20.1 7.0 2.0 1.3 0.7 0.1 1.6 .372 .756 0.5
2024-25 24 DAL/PHI 75 26.8 14.6 4.3 3.0 1.0 0.3 2.2 .467 .757 1.9
2025-26 25 PHI 75 29.4 13.4 3.6 3.3 0.9 0.4 1.7 .450 .840 1.8
Career 318 25.6 11.1 3.2 2.3 0.8 0.3 1.9 .446 .793 1.3

The two traded seasons split as follows. 2023-24: 45 games with New York (20.2 MPG, 7.3 PTS, 1.7 3PM, .395 FG) before the February 8, 2024 trade to Detroit, then 6 games with Detroit (19.2 MPG, 5.3 PTS, .214 FG) in an injury-shortened stint. 2024-25 is the important one: 47 games with Dallas (22.8 MPG, 10.2 PTS, 3.8 REB, 2.1 AST, .463 FG / .398 3P) before the February 4, 2025 trade to Philadelphia, then 28 games as a Sixer at 33.7 MPG with 21.9 PTS, 5.2 REB, 4.5 AST, 1.5 STL and 2.9 threes on .469 / .373 — a genuine lead-guard role on a team that had shut down its stars. Three-point percentages: .381, .386, .338, .385, .334.

Fantasy history: I could not verify a published season-end nine-category per-game rank for any of his five seasons from Basketball Monster, Hashtag or the ESPN Player Rater, so no numeric finishes are stated. The shape is legible without them and it has changed twice. Through 2023-24 he was a low-usage three-and-D wing with a real steals rate but not enough of anything to be rosterable in standard leagues. The 28-game Philadelphia stretch in 2024-25 was top-of-the-league production on a per-game basis, and it is the sample that inflates his name value. 2025-26 settled between the two. Points leagues and categories rate him close to identically now, which is unusual — his line has no punt-worthy weakness and no category he wins outright, so the value is the sum rather than any single hook. The one thing worth noting is the free-throw shift: .840 on real volume in 2025-26 turned FT% from a neutral into a mild positive.

Durability: 46, 71, 51, 75, 75 games. 2021-22 was a rookie rotation year, not an injury year. 2023-24 is the worst mark and the causes were split across two teams; his Detroit stint ended early and he appeared in only 6 games there. The last two seasons are the relevant evidence: 75 games in each, which is a normal-to-good availability profile. In 2025-26 he left a late-November 2025 game against Atlanta under concussion protocol, dealt with back spasms during the season, and appeared on the injury report with a knee problem in February 2026; I could not verify the exact game-by-game attribution of the seven missed contests, so treat that list as the named causes rather than a complete accounting. Nothing here is chronic, and the dossier's "high" availability confidence is supported by the record.

Trajectory: Grimes has been on four teams in three years, and every meaningful change in his line traces to opportunity rather than skill development. Per 36 he has scored roughly 12.6, 13.6, 12.5, 19.6 and 16.4 across his five seasons — the 2024-25 figure is inflated by the Philadelphia stretch where he shot 23.4 points per 36 on a roster with nobody else to use possessions, and 2025-26's regression to 16.4 is what happens when that team gets its rotation back. That is the honest read: his true talent is somewhere near the 2025-26 line, not the 28-game flash, and the projection in this dossier is right to decline to extrapolate it. The two things that did improve rather than merely expand are free-throw shooting (.684 to .840 across the career) and passing (1.0 to 3.3 assists), the latter reflecting real on-ball reps he did not get in New York. Against that, three-point accuracy fell to a career-low .334 in 2025-26 as his diet moved off the catch, which is the standard tax for handling more. He is 26, so this is the middle of the prime and the shape is set; in Los Angeles, playing off Dončić and Reaves should push him back toward the catch-and-shoot volume where he is most accurate, which argues for a better 3P% and fewer assists than 2025-26.

Career sources: ESPN career stats · Wikipedia — Kansas and Houston stats, draft, trades · NBA.com player page

Open questions