Mavericks beef up defense through trade for young guard

The Mavericks upgraded their defense at the trade deadline and it propelled them to the Finals. Now they’re adding another defense-first player.

Dallas saved money and acquired a 24-year-old who was a remarkably effective defensive player with the New York Knicks during the 2022-23 season. One advanced metric had Grimes worth 6.1 estimated wins that year, thanks to his defense and 38.6% three-point shooting.

Grimes fell off last season, in part due to the Knicks’ changing roster. His shot attempts went down after the team added Donte DiVincenzo, then he lost his starting spot. When the team traded RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley, Grimes found himself miscast on a Knicks bench that needed scoring more than defense and he was traded to the Detroit Pistons.

Alongside Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic in Dallas, Grimes can go back to being a defensive stopper. He was remarkably good on corner threes his first two seasons and both Mavericks guards are great at finding teammates in the corner.

The deal only cost Dallas Tim Hardaway Jr. and his $16.2M contract, plus three future second-round picks. Grimes makes only $4.3M, leaving Dallas room to bring back players like Derrick Jones Jr. and potentially add reinforcements while staying under the first salary apron.

Why did Detroit dump a 24-year-old like Grimes? It’s a sign that new team president Trajan Langdon is cutting ties with the Troy Weaver era and wants to restart, which includes their expected move to let former No. 2 pick James Wiseman go.

The Pistons’ housecleaning is the Mavericks’ gain. As they learned in their Finals loss to the Boston Celtics, you can never have too many good wing defenders.