Some of my thoughts:

• No doubt MU could use the inside presence, toughness, and rebounding that Grimes would bring. And like you said, that would free up Carroll to play more of a natural 4, rather than plugging him in that 5 spot.
• I'm not sure Grimes helps all that much against K-State the other night. Beasley and Walker simply weren't going to be denied.
• Leo/Carroll/Grimes at 3/4/5? That would require Anderson to sit Matt Lawrence, and he's proven this year there's no way in hell Lawrence sits, regardless of how he's shooting. Outside of a few games, Lawrence has been awful shooting from the perimeter and shaky on D, but Anderson doesn't seem willing to bench him until he gets arrested or beaten.
• How does that stunt the development of Safford?
• The question that needs to be asked is, if Grimes doesn't have these issues, is Anderson as hard on the other guys to try to clean up his program? Were Grimes and Hannah martyrs for the "Anderson needs to make a statement" cause, regardless of the fact that they "deserve" what they received?

with your last assertions about Grimes' potential involvement in our off-the-court issues, I certainly believe you make a bigger point in how much we missed him this year.  I have been on us all season about our team's basketball IQ and especially as it pertains to positioning on rebounding and stuff, but Grimes would have certainly contributed some additional rebounds, and I think more importantly like you talked about, potentially take the heat off of Carroll.

My concern for next year is that we will still have no one to take that heat off of him.  I think if healthy he is a better player than we have seen of late, but I dont think he is that much better than we are seeing, especially if pressed into service a tad out of position like he has been this season.

Just another concern I will carry into next season I suppose...