Knicks' Quentin Grimes misses season opener as pain lingers in left foot
Knicks guard Quentin Grimes looks on against the Wizards in the first half of an NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden on Friday, March 18, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
MEMPHIS — The high hopes that the Knicks have for Quentin Grimes had to take a pause, at least for opening night, as the second-year wing was held out with soreness in his left foot — a condition that has plagued him since the start of camp.
Grimes appeared in the final preseason game after working his way up to that, finally feeling pain-free. But Saturday he felt pain again and was held out of practice and now is back to where he was, trying to find a way to completely eliminate the pain.
“It started creeping in before training camp a little bit and then when training camp hit, it was kind of like really painful to walk on and stuff,” Grimes said. “They said it was kind of a overuse thing. Just being in the gym a lot. Coming back at night, going back to Houston, working on it and working on it. Then [Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau] had us in there for sure, working out, overusing it for sure. It was an overuse thing really.”
“General soreness, so he’s got to be able to sustain it,” Thibodeau said. “So if he ramps it up and there’s anything there, it’s basically day to day. So just follow the protocol and plan that the trainers have laid out. Then we go from there. When he’s healthy he’s healthy, we don’t want anyone out there that’s injured.”
Grimes said that an MRI in late September did not reveal a fracture or a more serious condition than soreness. And feeling pain-free Friday he thought he was ready to return. Now he’s back to icing and undergoing shock wave treatment to relieve the pain.
“I think I wasn’t really supposed to come back that early but it started feeling really good,” he said. “I practiced two times before that and it was pain-free. Then after the game it kind of flared up again and [I'm] kind of being more cautious with it.
“Hopefully I can practice [Thursday] then see how it feels. If it feels good on Friday, hopefully I’m 100%. That’s the goal. Doing everything they said and monitoring it.”
Battle of the bigs
Thibodeau has repeatedly said in recent weeks that he believes Mitchell Robinson is the best offensive rebounder in the NBA, not a wild claim since Robinson finished second in offensive rebounding percentage last season. And the one player who surpassed Robinson doesn’t believe it’s wrong either.
“He said he’s the best? Probably,” Memphis center Steven Adams said. “He’s really good, man. Tipped balls, solid. I’d agree with that . . . He’s a good offensive rebounder, jumps high, good positioning, very talented. He’s really good for their system, how they attack and whatnot.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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