Immanuel Quickley was “optimistic” about potential second round return

Toronto was without Immanuel Quickley for the whole seven-game matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs, as Quickley suffered an injury on Toronto’s last regular-season clinching win that gave them the fifth seed in the first round of the playoffs.

Quickley says he was ramping up and starting to do live play when he re-injured his hamstring in the same spot during the series. "Unfortunate. I wanted to be out with the guys."

Sounds like he would've been unlikely for the 2nd round as well. "You never know. I was optimistic."

— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) May 4, 2026

IQ described it as being “unfortunate” and how he wanted to help the Raptors out in their first-round matchup, but just couldn’t get healthy enough to be given the green light by the medical staff. He suffered a hamstring injury against the Brooklyn Nets after 17 minutes of game time and wasn’t seen again in the postseason.

Quickley was getting closer to a return, but suffered a setback in live play during practice as he began to ramp up his basketball activities. He also responded later with “you never know, I was optimistic” when addressing a potential return in the second round of the playoffs if Toronto were able to advance.

Quickley had a much healthier year after featuring in just 33 games in the 2024-25 season, but was able to play in 70 games this season, averaging a career high of 31.9 minutes per game while putting up 16.4 points, 5.9 assists and 4 rebounds per game.

The former Kentucky product still has three more years on his current contract and will earn $32,500,000 in each season going forward.

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