Immanuel Quickley finds perfect pace in his triumphant return

What the Raptors have needed, desperately, is a point guard who can competently move the Raptors through their actions, and with a bit of danger. Davion Mitchell is a fairly mistake free game manager, but there’s hardly any offensive punch there. Jamal Shead plays with a fairly unique verve and grinds his way to plays, but is fairly likely to overextend himself into mistakes. Immanuel Quickley is Goldilocks’ found porridge: just right.

For Quickley it isn’t just the shooting (of which he adds a lot) that simplifies offensive processes for many of the Raptors players, and allows them more space to do so. It’s that he was moving off ball to weaponize that gravity; it’s that he was perfectly willing to move off the ball and keep the Raptors offense humming – knowing the ball would come back to him plenty.

The Scottie Barnes point guard experiment is an ongoing one, and not something the Raptors are tossing away. However, it has been unrelenting and without reprieve. The reprieve tonight looked something like a 6/7 shooting start from the floor that was enabled by Barnes playing off the ball, doing early work for position down low, and finishing plays as a roamer in the offense. Barnes, of course, got a handful of possessions to shake and move the offense (and he did fairly well with those), but he got to strike a handsome balance between forward and point. A point forward, if you will.

That is what Quickley’s immediate presence provides: the ability for the Raptors to more freely toggle between strengths, and the ability to avoid monotony. This all came before Quickley even started stamping himself on the game, as well. Sure, there was a bold behind-the-back step-back jumper that he hit to stop a run, but early on a lot of what Quickley did was simply due to moving the ball and working through the offensive reads with a continuous live dribble – a talent that the Raptors haven’t had in spades.

Quickley is still on a minutes restriction, still just returning from missing 21 straight games, and isn’t the savior of these Raptors, but his presence simplifies a lot – both in process and in role for his team. The things that were good early should continue being good, and with some things it should be easy to see how they get better.

For example? The Raptors have opened with their Ram/Ghost/Flex play sequence in other games this season, but they haven’t been able to use Gradey Dick as the flex screener for Barnes before, and that tension of those two players, plus Quickley’s presence on ball created a wide-open screen once Dick came off the pin-down from Poeltl. The shot didn’t go in, but Dick would go on to hit 3 out of his next 5 triples in the first half – it’s good process.

Barnes wasn’t the only one who was assisted by Quickley’s presence, Dick was as well. He’s been a player who has really made his money as a whirling dervish, and the more offensive prowess on the floor, the more opportunity for Dick to exploit teams with his motion. The Nets did a lot of top-locking, they pursued closeouts aggressively, and Dick continued to outskirt them as he jumped out to a very quick 17 points.

Basketball is a very complex game, with a bunch of different motivators for success, but the Raptors did end up striking a nice, simple balance offensively – relying on Dick & Quickley to try their best at taking & making some of the more difficult shots on the floor, and looking to Barnes to be a big, efficient hub of offense. They still haven’t sorted out the defense, so keeping pace with the offense was the major motivator.

My favorite play of the game, and one of my favorite plays all season featured an attempt at the Raptors getting the ball to Barnes in the mid-post. Ultimately the paint was too crowded and Quickley had to dribble out as Barnes retreated to the corner, then Quickley drove his man into the paint, snaked middle, and threw a no look, live dribble lob to Barnes who was crashing from the corner. Huge dunk, huge play. Later, the Raptors located Kelly Olynyk as a high-low man to hit Barnes for a layup. Looking for that early work, rewarding that early work. Barnes is a huge, hulking bully, and the Raptors used him as such.

Barnes burst out to 27 points on just 14 shots, and he might have used the least amount of dribbles he has in any game this season. Some dribbling, some creating, of course, but a finisher to be sure.

It’s worth saying, again, that the defense hasn’t been solved yet. However, if you’re a Raptors fan tuning into see what works on offense? What needs to work on offense? You watched an efficient, brutish Barnes punch in points professionally. You watched Quickley create with a live dribble, in the pick n’ roll, wiggle and slither around the court playmaking and changing the Raptors looks with his presence (to the tune of a double-double, mind you). And you saw Dick navigate all of that for an explosive scoring night that never overstepped, only enhanced.

It was only right that the play that put the Raptors up 20, and stamped a 15-2 run late in the 4th quarter was a Quickley pull from 29-feet out after the Nets didn’t respect the jumper as they should. Pull, bang. 119-99.

Quickley didn’t just step back into the Raptors rotation, he put his foot in it. 21 points & 15 assists from the Raptors guard. Fantastic stuff.

Have a blessed day.

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