Morning Coffee - Feb. 18, 2025
Quickley is turning the corner | Game schedule is easier to finish the season | Rookies have opportunity to develop further
How Immanuel Quickley is, slowly, turning the corner - Raptors Republic
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.
One goal for each Raptors rookie to finish the season - Raptors Republic
Jamal Shead
Developmental Win: Winning On Defense
Jamal Shead has been surprisingly good on offense. The 3-point shooting has been less of an issue than expected. He’s knocking down 35 percent of his looks and has been excellent at pushing the pace for the Raptors. He’s put together some impactful offensive performances recently, including a game where he spurred a comeback versus the New York Knicks with 16 points and nine assists, most of which were in the second half. But while his reputation in college was that of a lockdown defender in Houston, it hasn’t been the case at the NBA level. The Raptors give up nearly 9 points per 100 possessions more with Shead on the floor on defense, which is the worst mark on the entire team. While some of that is due to the lineups he’s a part of, mainly consisting of second-unit players, his size and over-aggression hurt him. Shead has a 4.4-percent foul rate, which is in the 7th percentile at his position, and is near the bottom of the rotation in terms of deflections. He’s had moments where he’s shown flashes of his potential on that end, but it’s hard for a rookie guard at his size to win on that end. Finding his way defensively to finish the season would be a big developmental win for the Raptors.
Lottery Lookahead: Raptors' Remaining Schedule May Cause Problems - Sports Illustrated
Beginning March 7, when the Raptors host the Utah Jazz, the schedule takes a dramatic shift. Sixteen of Toronto’s final 20 games will be against teams in the league’s bottom third, including three meetings with the Washington Wizards, two with the Charlotte Hornets, and two more against the Jazz. With 27 games left in the season, the Raptors now have the NBA’s easiest remaining schedule by a significant margin. Their opponents boast a combined win percentage of just 39.8%, five percentage points lower than any other team.
Had the schedule been flipped, there’s a reasonable chance Toronto’s season would have played out differently. A softer opening stretch could have created a mirage of early success before reality hit when the schedule toughened. Instead, the Raptors find themselves in a strange position, one where their record may not fully reflect their talent.
When healthy, Toronto has shown it can compete. This isn’t a team completely devoid of talent, and it certainly has enough to handle the league’s bottom feeders. That is what makes this final stretch so complicated.
The organization has made it clear that development and lottery positioning are the priorities. Right now, the Raptors hold a 42.1% chance at a top-four pick and a 10.5% shot at landing the No. 1 selection. Maintaining or even improving those odds is the goal.
The benefit of the remaining schedule is that Toronto controls its own fate. Losses to the league’s worst teams would push them further down the standings, tightening the gap between them and Charlotte, who sit 2.5 games ahead for the fourth-worst record.
But what happens if the Raptors win too much? What if the schedule shift sparks momentum, confidence, or even a few unexpected victories that move them up the standings? Would that be a step forward or a missed opportunity?
The final stretch of the season won’t just shape Toronto’s lottery odds. It may reveal just how committed the organization is to the path it has chosen.
2 Words to Describe Every NBA Team with 2 Months Left - Bleacher Report
Locked In
Toronto has five players set to collect more than $19 million next season. Four will make over $27 million, and three will take home salaries north of $32 million.
Those are the kinds of salary allotments you might normally associate with a top-shelf contender. The Raptors...uh...are not that. They're playing more like a tanker (17-38), which is probably the right move since they arguably need more high-end talent.
Clearly, though, they believe in this core, which was expanded to include the acquired-and-extended Brandon Ingram at the trade deadline. There is some obvious overlap between him, Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett, and not a lot of shooting from building blocks not named Immanuel Quickley. There is talent here, at least, but Toronto is pot-committed to a nucleus that needs plenty of development to rise above mediocrity.