TORONTO — Consecutive wins — even over a pair of short-handed opponents — have calmed the nerves around the Toronto Raptors over the past few days.
Did they need calming after four consecutive losses marred by team defensive effort that hovered between bad and atrocious?
Turns out they did, at least a little:
“I would say we were panicking. I think we didn’t want to lose,” said Raptors second-year guard Jamal Shead, candidly. “I 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 … I think all of us have a sense of, ‘we want to win now’ and not wait until it’s time for us to move on from here.”
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.
And while the season’s 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:
Can Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram co-exist?
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.
Can RJ Barrett find a role as a secondary option?
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.
Does rookie Colin Murray-Boyles have the look of an NBA player?
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.
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.
There’s no glossing over it.
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 — while harder to quantify — he’s seemed a step behind defensively more often than he has looked ahead of the play.
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.
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Nothing to see here, apparently.
“I mean, first of all, there is no magic wand,” said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. “He’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.
“All 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.
“I 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.”
It’s 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’t have a lot of choices.
Either Quickley begins playing at a level somewhat commensurate with his salary — at 21.5 per cent of the salary cap, his deal values him as an above-average NBA point guard — or Toronto is going to have some long-term salary cap and roster complications that aren’t easy to solve in a league where teams are more mindful of their long-term financial commitments than ever before.
Quickley says he’s not bothered, and he probably shouldn’t be. If he were in the midst of a seven-game slump in, say, January, it wouldn’t be a big deal.
“I try not to look at it as a rough patch. Everybody thinks it’s a rough patch, but it’s all in how you look at it, perspective,” said Quickley. “Life could be a lot worse. But I just continue to come in every single day, being present: ‘how can I get better when I’m in a workout or how can I better when I’m watching film?’ At the end of the season, I know I’m going to be fine. The work I put in, the trust I have in God, I believe.”
Offensively, there are a couple of areas that stand out.
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 — and now Brandon Ingram — 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.
So far, Quickley’s only been getting up 5.1 threes in his 31 minutes of floor time, and the makes haven’t been there.
Again, not to worry: “ … The three is going to come. I’m not really worried about that,” he said. “I 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.”
Another area Quickley’s 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’s 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’s arsenal.
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’s converting them at just 23.5 per cent.
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’s 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.
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.
Now it’s Quickley’s turn, and the only way ahead is forward.
“I’m always confident, whether the ball is going in or not. I’m going to keep shooting. The best shooters keep shooting,” he said. “But, really, it’s not just about me. It’s 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.”
There is no need to panic. Yet.
