This season could not have progressed in a more frustrating way for Immanuel Quickley. Leading into the season, that went great. A huge new contract, inked on the dotted line, paying him like one of the better point guards in the league. The Toronto Raptors paid their point guard of the future. Then the season began, and it looked for a stretch like all that certainty might have been dust in the wind.
He fell on his pelvis in the season-opener and bruised it. He missed eight games. In his second game back, he tore the UCL in his elbow. Twenty-two games missed. Played in six games before leaving, again, this time with a hip strain. He missed eight more.
All in all, Quickley has appeared in 16 of Toronto’s first 55 games. More significantly — though certainly to be expected given the stop-and-start nature of his season — Quickley hasn’t been terrific in the time he has spent on the court. The team has been worse with him on the floor versus on the bench, both on offence and on defence. His numbers are down consistently across the board from his half season with the Raptors in 2023-24. Except for turnovers. Those are up.
The box-score numbers can be explained through fewer minutes as he rehabs from injuries. It’s completely understandable. And in fact, his per-36 numbers are pretty much the same as those from his time as a Raptor in 2023-24. The turnovers rising and on/off numbers dropping make complete sense, given his constant popping in and out of the lineup. A number of the deeper data points, such as his average touch time, his dribbles per tough, his drive rate and efficiency — those are all the same as last year, too. So it’s not like this season has been a disaster. But it certainly hasn’t been positive.
Until this last final week before Toronto’s All-Star break.
Quickley has finally been turning the corner. He’s hunting shots, playing aggressively, making rapid choices. He’s connecting on 39.1 percent of his triples on 7.7 attempts per game, versus 36.6 percent on 5.5 attempts per game prior. Everything that Toronto wants from its point guard, he has started providing. His change in approach has been noticed.
“I think it’s very important for our team that he’s playing this way,” said Darko Rajakovic when I asked about Quickley’s recent upswing. “That he’s getting off the ball so the ball can come back to him. That he’s getting good shots and creating shots early in the shot clock.”
When Quickley is aggressive, it offers a unique weapon that no one else on the Raptors can unsheathe. When he’s hunting shots, moving constantly, making immediate choices: that’s just good basketball. He doesn’t need to do a ton to sow fear in defences. A hit-ahead dribble, a crossover, a quick get action, a change of direction, a stepback — okay, maybe that is a ton. Like, a ton. But it sure sows fear.
He can even momentarily look like one of the best offensive creators (when he’s at his best) in the league.
He’s pushing early in the shot clocking, including after makes. At one point against the Cleveland Cavaliers, he drove through the body of his defender after a make, drew help, and kicked to his trailing big for a triple. An easy shot, created easily, eight seconds into the clock. Most teams employ lots of players who can create such looks. For the Raptors, it’s usually Quickley or bust there.
He can do lead-guard stuff in a way that no other Raptor can do. Beat his own man off the dribble. Hit pull-up jumpers. Gosh it is needed for this team, who is second-last in isolation possessions per game and fourth-last in points per possession in such looks. Toronto needs hoopers, and Quickley is one. Brandon Ingram, by the way, will help tremendously on that front.
But importantly, Quickley is at his actual best when he’s not doing lead-guard stuff. He’s an exceptional guard screener. When he’s setting flex screens and back screens before darting into handoffs. It’s not how point guards traditionally enter their initiation reps in the NBA, but it’s when Quickley is at his best. He can obviously hit jumpers in those situations. But he’s getting better at toggling into drives or passes, too.
The key is aggression. Quick choices. Deep drives. So, so many triples. (He’s gotta let way more fly.) He has plenty of skills, and he has to shoot a ton in order to leverage them to create other stuff on the court. Recently, he’s been doing that more often than not.
For much of the season, that aggression has been missing. He’s been finding his way into the system. Which makes sense, but it’s certainly not what the team and Quickley himself must have wanted from this season.
The Raptors aren’t just building Quickley’s game forward, instilling aggression in a vacuum. They’re also building his game in conjunction with the framework around him. Namely, with Scottie Barnes. Rajakovic is very intentional about getting the duo on the same page. For the past three games, they have had virtually identical substitution patterns, spending 30 minutes together per game of Quickley’s 31 total. They averaged 24 minutes per game together prior to Feb. 9 (in games in which they were both healthy and playing). Getting the two on the court together, together, has been a real target.
“It’s a work in progress. [Putting Barnes and Quickley in actions together is] very intentional. Trust me, I’m fighting the fight in the timeouts,” said Rajakovic, who then acted out his discussions with Quickley during timeouts. “I want to speak to you like, ‘why don’t you bring somebody else?’ ‘No, I want you. I don’t care who is guarding you and what is the matchup. I want you two guys to play together, to start creating chemistry there, to play off of each other, to communicate.’
“It’s a process. They just played a couple games here together, but there are some really good signs.”
Rajakovic is right about that, too. He’s not overstating the relationship — there have been bumps in the road. Namely, the two haven’t seemed to fit well together for the vast majority of their time as teammates. They haven’t run actions together, haven’t established chemistry. The last week has shown signs of all that coming together. They haven’t been as tentative, uncertain when to defer and when to attack. Quickley has looked aggressive even when Barnes is screening for him. The action isn’t forcing much beyond switches, but Quickley’s stepback on a switch is a real half-court weapon.
And Barnes will smash switches against guards, too. This is good. The more they eat together now, the better it will look later.
If it doesn’t work, that’s fine — this is the season for leg-stretching. But it’s actually gone quite well, at least recently. The actions with Barnes handling and Quickley screening, those haven’t really changed. But the standard 1-4 sets, with Quickley handling and Barnes screening, have increased by an identifiable margin. Not to mention the fact that they are finally scoring efficiently in actions together.
Of course, these are all tiny sample sizes, particularly since Feb. 9. (That only involves three games.) But that’s the point of such actions. They are bound to be small sample sizes. Success, even in tiny trial sets, is a step forward. Sure, a season with 1000 Quickley-Barnes picks and 500 Barnes-Quickley ones, averaging 1.0 points per chance would be nice. But 100 picks scoring 1.0 points per chance is where they need to start. In many ways, that’s what the past three games have represented:
A step forward.
Quickley is far from a finished product. That he’s spent a few games looking like the player the franchise is hoping for (and paid for), the player that the franchise dreamed of pairing with Barnes, is a great sign. Before players can string months as a star, seasons as a star, they have to be one for a full shift, a full game, a full week. Quickley is still walking that road. He has had huge games. He has enormous ability. Eventually it will be about harnessing that his talent consistently, every possession at a time. For now, it’s just finding what works best.
The past few weeks have answered that question in a few different ways. None have been a surprise, but it’s good to see things work. His aggression has worked, creating advantages. His decisions have been quick. He has attacked early in the clock. The shooting has been great. He has looked, for the first time in reality versus in theory, like a great co-star alongside Barnes. More than the sum of their parts.
And that’s the real appeal. Masai Ujiri said it after the trade deadline, and it was why immediate reactions to his acquisition (including from me) were so positive. The theoretical fit between Quickley and Barnes was immaculate, with the shooting of one complementing and being complemented by the passing of the other. I wrote this then:
And if it works, this could bring Toronto’s offense into modernity. This is the exact type of player with whom Barnes has long been needing to play. Barnes is great at making plays in space, and Quickley is great at creating space. Also: Barnes is great at creating space, and Quickley is great at making plays within it. The two will combine as pick-and-roll combos (with either handling and either screening) as well as handoff combos to deadly effect. Or, Quickley and Siakam will do the same. The options for high horns with Quickley as the handler, or ghost screens with Quickley as the screener, or get actions, my goodness. I’m very excited. Toronto simply hasn’t ever had a player to unlock Barnes and Siakam. Quickley will do that.
None of that has manifested on the court, not consistently. That’s why Rajakovic has been force-feeding Quickley and Barnes minutes together, force-feeding them actions together. Wins and losses don’t matter this season. What matters from the perspective of the franchise is adding talent, and making sure that its best players play at their best together. Quickley’s steps forward are wins in both columns.
