As everyone around the Toronto Raptors filed into Jack Simpson Gymnasium in Calgary there was a palpable excitement in the air. Amidst all of it, Immanuel Quickley continues to get work in.
Quickley expressed his excitement on media day. “I’m very excited. Any time you get a chance to go back to the drawing board and look to where you can be better — obviously I missed a lot of games with injuries — but anytime you can go back and just work from the foundation and see where you can improve – I’m always excited for that part of basketball.” His teammates are the ones raving about him, though.
“I don’t even worry about 5, man. Don’t worry about him.” RJ Barrett said before explaining the new nickname for the duo. “We’re 9 to 5, man. I ain’t worried about him. That’s my brother. It’s good to see him healthy, to see him back, and I’m not gonna say too much on it. You guys will see once he’s out there on the floor.”
Jamal Shead, the other de facto point guard on the roster also heaped praise on Quickley’s offseason work ethic and how he’s gotten into shape for the upcoming season:
“I think everyone notices that IQ is in the best shape here. Out of everybody. He looks ready to go, and I think he’s itching to go. You know he averages, what, 17 and 9, almost 10 or something like that. And he was playing with half his team the entire time that he was playing. So, I think just getting to see the best version of him with the best version of our starting five, it’s gonna be really fun.”
Last season Quickley averaged 17.1 points, 5.8 assists, and 3.5 rebounds with a true-shooting percentage of 57-percent across 33 games. The Raptors are 24-47 across two seasons with Quickley in the lineup.
