There are two ways a doctor can treat a patient. He or she can of course prescribe medicine or solutions of any kind. You go in with a janked elbow, the doctor can offer an X-ray and medication and the whole kit and caboodle. Or, of course, if you go in with a janked elbow and tell the doctor, “it hurts when I move it this way,” the doctor can say, “don’t move it that way.”
In the NBA, players can improve broadly in those same two ways, too. They can address their weaknesses, turn them into strengths, and evolve as players. Or they can just stop doing the things that they’re bad (relatively) at.
So far this preseason, it seems Immanuel Quickley is choosing the latter solution.
There’s no publicly available tracking data from preseason, so we’re working mostly off the eye test here, in conjunction with extrapolated concepts from box-score stats. But broadly, Quickley has seen far less primacy on the offensive end, and he has expended far more effort on the defensive end.
Again, this isn’t tracked publicly, and I haven’t counted to prove this; however, I trust my eye test for generalities like this, and it’s quite clear that Quickley’s touches are way down on a per-minute basis. He is running fewer primary actions, dribbling less, holding less, and just generally doing less. Yet! His shots per 36 minutes are only slightly down (16.8 per 36 so far this preseason versus 17.2 last season), and his 3-pointer attempts are actually up. (My prediction may actually come true this year.)
The real area in which the changes to Quickley’s game are evident is in his assists per game. He’s averaging fewer than half as many per 36 minutes as compared to last season. (And before you say it’s only because it’s preseason, he averaged triple as many last preseason as compared to this one.) Quickley is seeing less of the ball, making fewer choices, and generally finding his own place within the flow of the offence rather than determining everyone else’s. That is manifesting in fewer dribbles, more triples, and fewer assists.
And that’s all very positive.
Quickley has never been a subtle manipulator in the middle of the floor. He likes straight lines and single speeds. Most of his drives end up in outside-of-the rim layups (tough, low-percentage looks), floaters (tough, low-percentage looks), or sprays to shooters (good, but not always available). Last year, when compared to other players at his position, he was a below-average finisher at the rim and from the short midrange. If he picks up his dribble, it is almost never to manipulate the defence and instead is to request teammates for an SOS bailout.
So it’s not a bad thing that Quickley hasn’t initiated as many possessions. Simple, straight-line drives are more punishing anyway when they’re coming from the second side. Another benefit of shifting Quickley off the ball. He’s still dribbling the ball up the floor, but he’s more often giving it up to a teammate coming off a pindown, or on the nail, or elsewhere. Then that guy runs the first real set. He’s still running occasional sets as a screener, ghosting into space, tapping the defender on the wrong hip to open space. That’s good, shifting off the ball will empower more of those moments.
A caveat: Quickley’s most natural pick-and-roll partner is Jakob Poeltl. That is because Poeltl can take a middling pocket pass 14 feet from the rim and turn it into a high-efficiency shot from floater range or directly at the rim. Quickley isn’t passing players into layups, but he can give Poeltl that simple pocket pass. And Poeltl’s absolute elephantine screens free Quickley for his low-release pull-up jumpers. And of course Poeltl hasn’t played yet in preseason. This alone could explain Quickley’s drop in assists. But I think it more likely that there is an intentional shift in Quickley’s usage. We’ll see, of course.
Either way, Quickley is still going to initiate plenty of sets. He’s still the point guard, and he’s still going to do some point guard stuff. But Brandon Ingram — who has been excellent — will need a fat stack of touches when playing with this starting lineup. Last season, he averaged 70 touches a game, just off Toronto’s team lead set by Scottie Barnes, and ahead of anyone else. And because the Raptors need his skillset so desperately, I don’t imagine he’ll see fewer than 70 this upcoming season. Some of those touches will leech away from Barnes, some from RJ Barrett, and some from Quickley, too. With Ingram initiating, Quickley’s adaptations are a downstream benefit, with his touches going to a better primary creator.
That all depends on Quickley actually molding his game to fit this new role. So far, he has.
Off the ball, Quickley has actually been attacking open space with more vigor than he did last year. He is forming up around drives (especially into the corners), trailing with pace rather than floating, and attacking catch-and-shoot triples rather than letting the ball find him. This has been a skill that our own Samson Folk has discussed at length as a need for Quickley to take the next step. He’s not giving up the ball and floating, or at least not as much as he would have last season. Not to the extent that he is Steph Curry or anything like that. But it’s been better.
If the only changes were on the offensive end, it would be a positive shift. But the most visually evident change has actually come on the defensive end.
Quickley has been consistently picking up the ball full court. He has been solid at steering the ball into oncoming traps and doubles, and though he hasn’t himself collected many steals, Quickley has been a catalyst for several. That’s real progress for Quickley.
It hasn’t manifested in a ton of change in the half court. He hasn’t become a ball stopper, and he has continued to be involved in defensive breakdowns at times. This is normal and expected. But any amount of improvement is welcome, and the fact that Quickley is doing more, trying harder, and succeeding at it in any capacity is impressive. It bodes well for more general defensive improvement.
Of course, players can do things in preseason and then not do them in the regular season. Nothing that has happened to this point is a guarantee of change when the games start mattering. Quickley has played few minutes so far this preseason, and it’s easier to attack space off the ball offensively and pick up full court defensively when you’re only playing 22 minutes a game. Everything is to be determined.
But if all holds, it seems as though Quickley will lean more into his strengths and away from his weaknesses on offence, while at the same time finding another way to be impactful on defence. This is improvement. Sure, he may never become Chris Paul or Kyle Lowry, manipulating the defence with pace changes in the middle of the floor. But he can still find his way to impact without that. Largely, by doing more damage elsewhere and ceding the middle of the floor to players who have more tools in that area.
It would be best if Quickley actually improved in the weaknesses that, to this point as a Raptor, have in some ways defined his game. But players can still become monstrously impactful with holes in their games. To start, Quickley needs to redefine his game by its strengths. So far this season — and we really are just taking the first steps down that road — so good.
