To put things simply, had this been a few years ago, Philadelphia 76ers guard Quentin Grimes would have been in a decent position to get paid.
While Grimes might not have secured $20 to $30 million, as he could be looking for, one could argue that he would’ve been a player already signed to a decent contract.
He had a great second half for the 76ers after being traded to Philadelphia by the Dallas Mavericks, but there's much more that's going on with this situation. When examining it, Tim Bontemps of ESPN recently broke it down.
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“Grimes is in the same situation as Kuminga in Golden State, Giddey in Chicago and Thomas in Brooklyn. He's a talented player who should be generating offers. But he's a restricted free agent and hardly any teams have cap space to pursue him, leaving him in a difficult position to negotiate...
“There's also uncertainty about Joel Embiid's and Paul George's health issues. If Grimes accepts the qualifying offer from Philadelphia -- rather than paying him a long-term, eight-figure annual contract -- the 76ers could enter the season a few million dollars into the luxury tax, allowing them to potentially dip under it if this season goes like last season,” Bontemps wrote.
As Bontemps touched on, it isn't Grimes' fault that he doesn’t have the market that he's been hoping for.
The reality of the situation is that the 76ers hold the keys in all negotiations, and they understand that another team in the NBA likely isn't going to give him anything close to what they can offer, because there isn't enough money to go around.