Houston Professional Athletes

Jamal Shead Weighs In on the Kawhi Effect

The Raptors made one of the offseason's most eyebrow-raising moves when they acquired Kawhi Leonard from the Los Angeles Clippers, and Houston alumnus Jamal Shead is already processing what that means for his team — and his own development.

Shead, 24, carved out a role as a spark plug off Toronto's bench last season, the kind of high-motor, do-the-dirty-work guard that championship-caliber teams need. Now he's about to share a locker room with Leonard, 35, a two-time Finals MVP and one of the most accomplished two-way players of his generation. According to Heavy Sports, Shead gave candid thoughts on the veteran's arrival — and the tone suggests a young player genuinely energized rather than intimidated by the pairing.

It's a meaningful moment for a former Cougar who was never supposed to be an easy NBA sell. Shead went undrafted out of Houston, earned his spot through sheer competitiveness, and has steadily expanded his footprint in Toronto. Playing alongside a player of Leonard's caliber — assuming health holds — could accelerate that trajectory in ways a standard developmental path simply can't replicate.

For Raptors fans, the calculus is straightforward: a 35-year-old Leonard is still a credible star when he's on the floor, and surrounding him with hungry young talent like Shead is exactly the kind of cultural reset Toronto has been hunting for since the post-championship teardown began.

Grimes Gets His Shot with the Lakers

Across the league, another Houston alum is stepping into a more prominent spotlight. Quentin Grimes landed in Los Angeles and has reportedly locked up the starting small forward role alongside Luka Dončić in what is shaping up to be a heavily overhauled Lakers roster.

Yahoo Sports notes that the Lakers aggressively rebuilt their core this offseason, bringing in Walker Kessler, Collin Sexton, Grimes, Matisse Thybulle, and others to construct a roster around Dončić. That Grimes is starting — not competing for minutes — is a real statement. The former Cougar has always flashed the perimeter shooting and defensive chops that fit a contender's wing rotation, and this is the highest-profile opportunity of his NBA career to prove it over a full season.

Heavy Sports also reported that Los Angeles continues to chase additional frontcourt help, suggesting the front office sees this group as a foundation, not a finished product. Grimes would benefit from any further upgrades around him, but even in the current construction, he has a legitimate chance to establish himself as a reliable starter on a team with championship ambitions.

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Two Houston alumni, two legitimate stories heading into the 2026-27 season. Shead is learning from one of the game's all-time competitors. Grimes is finally starting for a team built to win. Both owe a debt to the culture built in Houston — and both look ready to collect on it.

For Houston Cougars alumni watching the NBA this week, the biggest story has a Los Angeles dateline — and it's a good one.

Quentin Grimes is a starter.

The former Cougar has secured a starting spot with the Los Angeles Lakers, cementing himself as a core piece of a roster that had a glaring need for two-way versatility. According to Yahoo Sports, the Lakers have found exactly what they were looking for in Grimes: a player who can contribute meaningfully on both ends of the floor, plugging a hole that had been a genuine concern heading into the season.

Grimes' trajectory since leaving Houston has been one of steady, if sometimes winding, upward movement. A first-round pick in 2021, he developed into a respected 3-and-D option through stints with the Knicks and Mavericks before landing in Los Angeles. Now, he's not just on the roster — he's in the lineup, which is a different conversation entirely.

For a Lakers team that has consistently sought wing depth capable of defending multiple positions without disappearing offensively, Grimes fits the profile. His ability to knock down perimeter shots while holding his own defensively makes him the kind of low-maintenance, high-impact piece contenders covet. The fact that he's locked in as a starter — not competing for the role, not rotating in and out, but entrenched — signals that the Lakers' front office sees him as foundational to their identity this season.

It's a meaningful moment for the Houston program. Grimes joins a list of Cougar alumni scattered across the league — from Jamal Shead with the Raptors to Jarace Walker developing with the Pacers to Marcus Sasser logging minutes in Dallas — but none currently sits in a more visible position on a higher-profile roster. The Lakers are a franchise that operates under a national microscope, and a starting role there carries weight beyond the box score.

For Houston fans, Grimes' rise is the kind of story worth tracking closely as the season progresses. Starting jobs on contending rosters don't come easy, and keeping one is harder still. But through the week of August 23–29, the word coming out of Los Angeles is unambiguous: the Lakers have found their man, and he's wearing a University of Houston pedigree on his résumé.