As if it couldn’t get worse for Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, Quentin Grimes, another player he traded at the NBA trade deadline, also made him look bad, much like trading Luka Dončić did.
Grimes had one of his very best games as a pro for his current team, the Philadelphia 76ers, and posted a rare stat line that only one other player — you guessed it — Dončić has put up this season.
Quentin Grimes Joins Stat Line With Luka Dončić
In the Sixers’ victory over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday, March 1, Grimes put up 44 points, six rebounds, three steals, and nailed six three-pointers. StatMuse then revealed that the only player who put up a similar stat line in a game this season is Dončić.
Quentin Grimes and Luka Doncic are the only guards this season to record a game with
— Over 40 points
— Over 5 rebounds
— Over 2 steals
— Over 5 threesThe Mavs traded them both away. pic.twitter.com/EG0nphDu31
— StatMuse (@statmuse) March 2, 2025
All of this doesn’t make Harrison look good as a GM, knowing that he had both of these players on the same roster literally a month ago. While trading Dončić may go down as perhaps the craziest trade in NBA history, Harrison might not get too much approval for trading the cost-effective Grimes, either, for Caleb Martin, who has yet to play in Dallas.
Unlike Dončić, Grimes isn’t likely to put up those same numbers again, given his talent level. Yet, he’s an excellent player who could have helped the Mavericks’ playoff pursuit. Harrison may argue that he didn’t want to pay Grimes what he wanted, but until Martin shows up in a Mavericks uniform, that trade won’t be looked at too fondly.
It’s fair to say that the last few weeks have not been too kind to Harrison. Trading Dončić brought a firestorm of bad press that has not and will likely not die down for some time. To see Grimes thrive as well as he did in a bigger role only rubs salt in the wound.
If Grimes proves there’s more to his game in a bigger role, that trade will certainly haunt Harrison, as that could have also helped salvage Dallas’ season post-Dončić trade.
Again, it’s more likely than not that Grimes never plays that well again. Still, performances like the one he just had against the Warriors could indicate that he has another gear to his game, which will make it look like Harrison sold low on him.
There’s still plenty of time to truly evaluate how Harrison did at the trade deadline, but things haven’t gotten better since the deadline passed. He may get the last laugh in the end, but it may be a while before that happens.
