Quentin Grimes is happy to be back in the Lone Star State.
One of the newest Dallas Mavericks acquisitions, Grimes was born and raised in the Houston area, having gone to high school in The Woodlands and played collegiately at the University of Houston from 2019-21.
In an appearance on Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket (KTCK-AM), the former Cougar revealed that along with taking kindly to the idea of returning to Texas, he in fact grew up a fan of the Houston Rockets.
“I was a bit of a rocket fan growing up. Harden had the city buzzing for a while. They were one of the best teams in the league when I was in high school. So, yeah, I was definitely a rocket fan growing up. That’s gonna have to wait for a while now.”
Grimes came over in a summer trade that the Mavs made with the Detroit Pistons, in exchange for Tim Hardaway Jr. He joins Naji Marshall and Klay Thompson as Dallas’ offseason additions to a team that represented the Western Conference in the 2024 NBA Finals.
The Houston native was a five-star high school recruit coming out of The Woodlands in 2017, and committed to Kansas, before transferring to Houston to play under Cougars’ head coach Kelvin Sampson. In his final year at Houston, he averaged 17.8 points per game, helping the program reach the 2021 Final Four.
After being selected with the 25th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, Grimes played his first two and a half seasons on the New York Knicks, averaging 11.3 points per game in his last full season with the team. In Feb. of 2024 he was traded to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Bojan Bogdanović and Alec Burks.
In his radio interview Wednesday, Grimes also mentioned how the Mavs’ coaching staff has immediately given the fourth-year player freedom on the offensive end.
“When I first came here, the coaches were super firm. They give you the ultimate green light. Go out there, play your game, be aggressive, and everything that you do is super highly competitive. I feel like, with every game, every practice, I get more and more comfortable with the offense and defensive scheme,” Grimes said.
With a hobbled Luka Doncic, an injury to Dante Exum and the departures of Hardaway Jr. and Josh Green, the Mavs will likely need to lean on Grimes for perimeter scoring at points throughout the season.
Grimes will make his Mavericks debut on Thursday night when Dallas faces off against sophomore sensation Victor Wembanyama and his San Antonio Spurs at American Airlines Center for the season opener.
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