Raptors Notebook: Immanuel Quickley embracing expanded role as starter

TORONTO — Immanuel Quickley has been the Toronto Raptors' franchise point guard for nearly a year now, but he has played only 38 times for the team and started just 65 times in his five-year NBA career. 

The hope is Quickley will get in at least one pre-season start before the real games begin on Wednesday, but even that is going to be against the lowly Brooklyn Nets on Friday, a team that has already raised the white flag on a season that will be very much dedicated to losing enough games so they guarantee themselves a top-three pick in the 2025 draft. 

A sprained thumb from before training camp has continued to sideline Quickley, though there is optimism that he’ll be ready Friday. He is officially listed as questionable, although he went through a full workout with no restrictions on Thursday. 

In any case, the hope is that Quickley will be able to hit stride at good speed, given that the Raptors invested significantly in him since acquiring him along with RJ Barrett when they traded OG Anunoby to the New York Knicks last December. 

Quickley signed a five-year contract worth $175 million. The deal effectively locks him in as the team’s long-term starter at point guard, following in the footsteps of Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet. 

Quickley, who was blocked from starting for the Knicks by the emergence of all-NBA guard Jalen Brunson, gave the Raptors good reason to be encouraged in his 38 starts last season. 

He averaged 18.6 points and 6.8 assists while shooting 39.5 per cent from three on more than seven attempts per game. His overall field-goal percentage — 42.2 per cent — was dragged down as Quickley struggled finish in his in-between spots, from three to 16 feet, which are important for him as he’s not the kind of point guard who explodes all the way to the rim very often. 

But 38 starts as a Raptor and 65 in his career means that he’s still a work in progress. 

“He had a different role on a different team" with the Knicks, said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic, who has had to navigate a wide range of injuries and absences during the pre-season. “I think this year is a year for him to stabilize. He does not have to worry about anything else but getting better on the court, offensively and defensively. He worked really hard this summer — I wish he was able to play in these pre-season games — but all we want to see is him growing in the sense of how to run the team, how to be an efficient scorer, how to play on the ball, off the ball. … So, it’s going to be a learning process for him and for us to use him in the best way possible.”

Quickley is determined to take advantage of the opportunity he never quite got with the Knicks. 

“Nobody will ever hold me to a higher standard than I hold myself,” he said, noting that his finishing in the paint and around the rim has been a point of emphasis. “There's always different ways you can find to get better, the best players in the world, they find ways to get better, and I want to be one of those guys."

MITCHELL GETTING REPS WITH STARTERS

Davion Mitchell has looked mostly good as the Raptors starting point guard in the pre-season, a position he’ll relinquish with the return of Quickley. The fourth-year guard was acquired from Sacramento during the draft. He had 10 assists in the Raptors' win over Boston on Tuesday and is averaging six assists against fewer than one turnover in pre-season play, to go along with his trademark on-ball defence. His shooting has always been a question mark and, so far, Mitchell is connecting on just 39 per cent of his field goal attempts and 30 per cent from deep.

Mitchell said this week he’s enjoyed getting reps with the starters and put his hand up to volunteer the possibility that he could be a good fit playing alongside Quickley, rather than simply splitting time at point guard.

"I think that every year you're going to have people out," he said. "You're not going to have like 100 per cent of the team every year. So, just learning now in the pre-season with some of the starters is going to help me out a lot, just building that chemistry. But even when IQ comes back, I mean, he's a really smart player, so he's not going to basically demand the ball all the time. He just wants to win, just like everyone else. So, I think sometimes I want to bring the ball up [and], I mean, I’ve played off the ball before, so I kind of know how to play off a little bit. So, just learning, learning to play with him is going to be good for us.”

GRADEY DICK SHOWING PRE-SEASON PROMISE

It was only a pre-season game, but then again it was against the defending-champion Boston Celtics, and they did play most of their starters past the 30-minute mark, so it’s unfair to completely dismiss the second-year wing putting up a game-high 27 points in 25 minutes as just a pre-season thing.

Gradey Dick hit threes, scored on cuts and dribbled into pull-ups and looked confident in all aspects. The 20-year-old is miles ahead of where he was this time a year ago, and his teammates see it.

“He ended the season really well last year, and he was playing really great [against Boston], just moving off the ball, cutting, shooting the ball really well,” said Scottie Barnes. “And, you know, we put our trust and faith in that he was going to get better [in the off-season]. He obviously did, just getting better at shooting, making decisions more with the ball off the dribble, getting to his pull-ups and doing things like that. So, you know, we've got a lot of faith and trust in Gradey. We know what he can do.” 

SCOTTIE BARNES' WEAPON: SHOOTING THREES

There’s not much that the fourth-year star can’t do on the basketball court, but Barnes' ability to shoot threes credibly could be the swing skill that tips him from All-Star to all-NBA level.

If defences need to rotate to him at the three-point line, his ability to drive, pass and cycle through all the possible openings that creates would make him extremely difficult to guard and additionally would make things much easier for teammates who would benefit from the spacing.

Barnes had five threes against Boston, including a pair of above-the-break threes that he either dribbled into or walked into early in transition. It’s a shot usually reserved from the game’s true marksmen, but Barnes feels like it’s a weapon he’s more than willing to utilize.

“I've been working on that a lot this summer,” said Barnes, who shot a career-best 34.1 per cent from three, but was at 39 per cent from deep through his first 35 games before a late-season slide. “It's honestly one of my favourite shots. So, you know, whenever I'm able to take those, you know, like I said, it's about the time and situation. A lot of the times. You know you want to come and shoot it, but let a couple fall before you shoot it. So, I have a lot of confidence in that shot, and I like taking those shots, so I feel confident.”