Restricted free agency was kind of wild this offseason, with multiple teams playing hardball with multiple solid players. Utah Jazz fans may be worried that they are in for the same world of uncertainty with Walker Kessler next summer - spoiler warning: they shouldn't. However, due to how things played out with his team, the Jazz have the chance to sign Quentin Grimes with no issue next summer.
ESPN's Shams Charania confirmed that Grimes had signed his qualifying offer with the Philadelphia 76ers. Doing so means Grimes will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Restricted free agent Quentin Grimes is signing a one-year, $8.7 million qualifying offer to return to the Philadelphia 76ers, agent David Bauman told ESPN. Grimes will now hold an inherent no-trade clause and enter a more flush market in unrestricted free agency next summer. pic.twitter.com/RZz2XIPu1A
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 1, 2025
Grimes broke out with the Sixers. In 28 games with the team, he averaged nearly 22 points while shooting nearly 47% from the field and 37.3% from the three to go with 5.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists. The sample size was small and the Sixers didn't win much, but the numbers don't lie about him.
Philadelphia didn't play hardball necessarily because they don't believe his performance wasn't real, but rather because they were trying to maneuver through the cap to give him the money he wanted, which never came to fruition. So now, he is slated to become a unrestricted free agent in 2026, where the Jazz can swoop in to sign him without any issues of Philadelphia matching an offer sheet.
Utah is slated to be a cap space team next summer
The main reason why Utah opted not to extend Kessler is so that they could still extend him at the money he wants next summer while simultaneously being a player in free agency. For what it's worth, Philadelphia executed this exact strategy in 2023 when they positioned themselves to re-sign Tyrese Maxey and sign Paul George to a max contract the following summer.
Utah will have the chance to do the same with Kessler while positioning themselves to poach Grimes from Philly next summer. No, no one is suggesting that the Jazz give Grimes a max deal (not unless he has another gear to his game), but Utah should have enough cap room to make the Sixers sweat at the very least.
Grimes was floated as a target for the Jazz earlier, but the hangup was the prospect of the Sixers matching any offer sheet Utah could sign him to. That won't be a problem in 2026, and better yet, Grimes isn't an overly ambitious free agent target for Utah. He'll demand a payday, but not one too big for the Jazz, considering he's still relatively young and the talent he's shown.
He may not be a star, but he could be an important fixture on Utah's next playoff team. This season will be a test to see who among the Jazz's young talent are keepers. Another spoiler warning: not everyone will pass, and if and when they don't, Grimes can fill in as the more proven option.
Utah hasn't landed a big name in free agency since Bojan Bogdanovic in 2019, and while Grimes has only just recently shown how good he can be, he's talented enough for the Jazz to swing for the fences with him in 2026.