The Lakers have moved into a new phase, and Quentin Grimes is making it plain that he wants a front-row seat.
With LeBron James gone after eight seasons in Los Angeles, the team is no longer built around the four-time NBA champion. James left this summer for the Philadelphia 76ers, closing a run that included an NBA title in 2020 and a deep postseason push in 2023. Now the Lakers are reshaping everything around Luka Dončić, and Grimes sees a real opening in that reset.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick has already identified Dončić, Austin Reaves and Walker Kessler as expected starters, which leaves two spots up for grabs. Grimes is pushing hard for one of them.
“One hundred percent,” Grimes said when asked whether his goal was to start. “Having those comments brings competition, brings drive.
We want to be competitive every day in practice. I want to get everything I had, I want to fight for it, I want to earn it.
I don’t want anything handed to me or given out to me.”
That attitude fits the moment in Los Angeles. For years, nearly every personnel move revolved around James.
With him as the centerpiece, the Lakers were able to build a roster that produced a championship and another strong playoff run. But that formula is gone now, and the organization has spent the offseason trying to surround Dončić with the right mix of talent.
Grimes is part of that plan.
The Lakers signed him in July after he spent last season with the Philadelphia 76ers, making him their first free agent addition of an active offseason. He averaged 13.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists, and Los Angeles is counting on him to bring two-way value on the perimeter.
The fit is easy to see. Grimes gives the Lakers another guard who can defend, space the floor and play off Dončić’s creation. He also arrives with some familiarity, since he and Dončić were briefly teammates with the Dallas Mavericks before Grimes was traded during the 2024-25 season.
That connection could matter as the Lakers try to build an offense around Dončić’s playmaking. Grimes’ outside shot and perimeter defense make him a logical candidate to line up alongside both Dončić and Reaves, and his age suggests there is still room for him to keep growing.
The roster around Dončić looks very different from last season’s group. The Lakers won 53 games and reached the Western Conference semifinals, but James, Deandre Ayton and Rui Hachimura were starters who are no longer with the team. In their place are several younger pieces, including Walker Kessler, Collin Sexton, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Kevon Looney and Matisse Thybulle, all part of a major overhaul.
Grimes isn’t treating the open competition as a burden. He’s treating it as a chance.
And he thinks the group in Los Angeles has a ceiling that people may not be ready for. At Lakers media day, he said the team has enough talent to “shock a lot of people this year, for sure.”
For now, the immediate task is simpler than all the bigger-picture talk. Grimes wants a starting job, and the Lakers are giving him the chance to win one. If he does, he could become an important part of the franchise’s first season after LeBron James - and of the new era built around Dončić.
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