{"id":259933,"date":"2025-11-04T00:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T00:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/259933\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T00:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T00:39:10","slug":"why-raptors-immanuel-quickley-isnt-worried-about-slow-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/259933\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Raptors’ Immanuel Quickley isn’t worried about slow start"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Consecutive wins \u2014 even over a pair of short-handed opponents \u2014 have calmed the nerves around the Toronto Raptors<\/a> over the past few days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Did they need calming after four consecutive losses marred by team defensive effort that hovered between bad and atrocious?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Turns out they did, at least a little:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say we were panicking. I think we didn’t want to lose,\u201d said Raptors second-year guard Jamal Shead, candidly.\u00a0\u201cI think everybody here knows what we bring to the table, knows what we can do. I wouldn’t say we were panicking in a bad way. I think we were panicking in a good way because we felt like we shouldn’t have lost those games \u2026 I think all of us have a sense of, \u2018we want to win now’ and not wait until it’s time for us to move on from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, the response in wins over Cleveland (missing three starters) and Memphis (missing Ja Morant and three other rotation players) was as important as they were welcomed, in that the Raptors held the Cavaliers and Grizzlies to an average of 102.5 points, after giving up an average of 130.25 points in the four previous losses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And while the season\u2019s trajectory can hardly be locked in after seven games with wildly varying results, some early-season concerns have been set aside for the time being, such as:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Can Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram co-exist?\u00a0<\/p>\n

So far so good, as the Raptors’ cornerstone pieces are producing at or above their career averages and doing it at efficiency levels that would surpass their career bests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Can RJ Barrett find a role as a secondary option?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not a problem, as the 25-year-old wing is scoring more efficiently than at any time in his career and making strides defensively, also.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Does rookie Colin Murray-Boyles have the look of an NBA player?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Emphatically yes. The No. 9 pick has averaged 13.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.5 steals while shooting 52.5 per cent from the floor (including 50 per cent from three) in four games after going scoreless in his NBA debut, all while rarely, if ever, looking out of place or uncomfortable on either end of the floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But as the Raptors prepared to host the Milwaukee Bucks for the second time this season, it was inevitable that the focus shifted to the next area of concern: the subpar play of point guard Immanuel Quickley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no glossing over it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The sixth-year guard is scoring just 12.7 points a game on 39.2 per cent shooting, including 27.8 per cent from three. His assist rate is down from last season, while his turnover rate is up, and \u2014 while harder to quantify \u2014 he\u2019s seemed a step behind defensively more often than he has looked ahead of the play.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The added concern is that the five-year, $162.5 million contract that seemed like a reach when they signed him in the summer of 2024 after averaging 18.6 points and 6.8 assists on 42.2 per cent shooting (including 39.5 per cent from three) over 38 games will be approaching albatross status unless the 26-year-old rounds into form.<\/p>\n

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Livestream 40-plus regular season Toronto Raptors games, marquee matchups from around the association, select NBA Playoffs games, the NBA Draft and summer league action on Sportsnet+.<\/p>\n

Broadcast Schedule<\/a><\/p>\n

Nothing to see here, apparently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, first of all, there is no magic wand,\u201d said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. \u201cHe’s not playing his best basketball right now. And that’s fine. That’s fine. That’s why he has his teammates to help him, and not everybody can carry it over an 82-game-long season and be perfect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll he needs to do is take one day at a time, and one per cent, get better. What I can tell you is that he’s putting a lot of work in, a lot of effort in. He cares so much, and that’s why it’s frustrating for him because he’s going through this rough time, but it’s completely fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have complete trust in him and his work. All he needs to do is focus on what the team needs at any point in time of the game. I thought that (Sunday in the Raptors win over Memphis) he did a better job of running the team and getting us organized and set up and just taking it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the only reasonable way to look at it, at this stage, in part because the season is just seven games old, and also because the Raptors don\u2019t have a lot of choices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Either Quickley begins playing at a level somewhat commensurate with his salary \u2014 at 21.5 per cent of the salary cap, his deal values him as an above-average NBA point guard \u2014 or Toronto is going to have some long-term salary cap and roster complications that aren\u2019t easy to solve in a league where teams are more mindful of their long-term financial commitments than ever before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quickley says he\u2019s not bothered, and he probably shouldn\u2019t be. If he were in the midst of a seven-game slump in, say, January, it wouldn\u2019t be a big deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI try not to look at it as a rough patch. Everybody thinks it\u2019s a rough patch, but it\u2019s all in how you look at it, perspective,\u201d said Quickley. \u201cLife could be a lot worse. But I just continue to come in every single day, being present: \u2018how can I get better when I\u2019m in a workout or how can I better when I\u2019m watching film?\u2019 At the end of the season, I know I\u2019m going to be fine. The work I put in, the trust I have in God, I believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Offensively, there are a couple of areas that stand out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The three-point shooting is the most obvious. One of the reasons the Raptors coveted Quickley when he was with the Knicks was the vision of him as a point guard who’d be comfortable spotting up as a floor spacer alongside Scottie Barnes \u2014 and now Brandon Ingram \u2014 as working with them as a table-setter. Coming into the season, Quickley said he was looking forward to hoisting 10 threes a game, with many of them coming on wide-open catch-and-shoot looks thanks to all the attention defences would have to give to Barnes and Ingram.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So far, Quickley\u2019s only been getting up 5.1 threes in his 31 minutes of floor time, and the makes haven\u2019t been there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Again, not to worry: \u201c \u2026 The three is going to come. I\u2019m not really worried about that,\u201d he said. \u201cI know what I put into the work in the summer. But the mentality to stay aggressive, I think, is something I need to keep doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another area Quickley\u2019s struggled in is what is considered “floater range,” that soft spot from between three and 10 feet around the rim. As a smaller guard (he\u2019s listed at six-foot-three) who is neither the bowling-ball type that can get all the way to the rim through traffic (think prime Kyle Lowry) nor a high-flyer that can rise over the defence to finish above the rim, the in-between shots are a crucial part of Quickley\u2019s arsenal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But they are difficult shots, requiring tremendous touch. Over his past four seasons, Quickley has taken about 20 per cent of his shots from floater range and converted them at a more-than-respectable 44.3 per cent. This season, he\u2019s converting them at just 23.5 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It could be a by-product of not sharing the floor with Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl, who has missed the last three games with a back strain (he practiced Monday but is questionable for Tuesday\u2019s game against the Bucks) and whose presence would theoretically create more room around the rim, or it could just be another example of Quickley being off his game through the first two weeks of the season.<\/p>\n

The simplest way to put any doubts to rest is to play better. The Raptors putting in their two best defensive efforts over the past two games has had that effect for the team as a whole. That Barnes, Ingram and Barrett have all gotten off to good starts offensively has allayed some pre-season concerns, as has Murray-Boyles’ performances over the past four games after a rough debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s Quickley\u2019s turn, and the only way ahead is forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always confident, whether the ball is going in or not. I\u2019m going to keep shooting. The best shooters keep shooting,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, really, it\u2019s not just about me. It\u2019s about staying in the moment, staying in the present, and trying to help the team win games. But yes, definitely being aggressive is the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no need to panic. Yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Consecutive wins \u2014 even over a pair of short-handed opponents \u2014 have calmed the nerves around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-259933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}