Trade & FA 2024-25:

[mvossman]

I guess my thinking was that everyone is waiting to see how he fits this season. On the upside, Grimes becomes an important contributor and we may have to pay him more. He will be a RFA, so we don't get "Brunsoned" again and lose his value for nothing.

His QO will be ~$6.3M. Is there a limit on how much another team can offer next summer?

A team could offer him his max, although that is highly unlikely.  

I think part of getting "Brunsoned" is that Cuban was choking on the tax he would have to pay (although I do fall into the category of folks that thinks Brunson was going to NY regardless of what Cuban offered).  In Grimes case, it would probably be less about the tax and more about cap/apron issues.  Its not that they couldn't sign him, but it may be painful to fit it in.  They may have to ditch salary (paying assets to do so) in order to sign him and not go over an apron.

My best guess is that Grimes was looking for something around MLE level (I would be surprised if its significantly less and they couldn't come to a deal, but its possible).  So the only real hit is if Grimes has a great year (say 15 points a game on efficient shooting while playing good defense on a contender at age 24).  That might be enough for a team to offer him well over the MLE and create some very hard decisions for the Mavs.  I don't think that is a likely scenario (partially because it will be hard for him to get enough minutes to do it), but it is possible.

I'm a huge Grimes fan so I would have been fine to sign him to MLE kind of money, but I can see the strong argument that it would make more sense to wait given his RFA status and unlikelihood he will get an offer over the MLE.