Hard-nosed court conductors proving worth for Raptors in star guard's injury absence

Make that five straight, ladies and gentlemen.

The Toronto Raptors now have the longest active win streak in the NBA after demolishing the Washington Wizards on January 29 with a blowout 106-82 victory.

Everything seems to be in order for this hungry Raptors squad, despite all the noise circulating about Toronto being involved in trade deadline moves, with the upcoming status of their expendable veterans in question.

Be that as it may, there is still a huge hole missing in this Raptors lineup, and that is the extended injury absence of Immanuel Quickley. Toronto retained the 25-year-old guard in the 2024 offseason, where he signed a lucrative five-year, $175 million extension, keeping him in the Six moving forward as a focal point for their rebuild.

Quickley would experience an unfortunate setback to kick of the 2024-25 campaign, suffering an elbow injury that kept him out of action, and now enduring a hip injury that halted his short-lived return. In total, IQ has only played 9 games of the Raptors' 47 games completed thus far, leaving Toronto to find their playmaking and point guard duties elsewhere.

Of late, the Toronto Raptors can thank their two defensive-minded stud guards for playing up to par in Quickley's absence: veteran Davion Mitchell and rookie Jamal Shead.

Davion Mitchell and Jamal Shead have been key contributors for Raptors

For both gentlemen, it's been a pretty topsy-turvy season thus far, as they've largely been the subject of conversations debating whether they have the right to hold the backup guard spot. When the minutes got scarce, it became an issue of which guy you'd rather have suiting up on a nightly basis in a more enhanced role: the battle-tested vet or the young rook?

Fortunately in the present, there is no issue preventing both Mitchell and Shead to play an adequate amount of minutes respectively, while equally providing a ton of need for an uncertain Raptors core.

Let's look at Davion Mitchell first, who I'll admit has been a very polarizing figure this year due to his perceived lack of an offensive game. Ignoring his limitations on the offensive end, Mitchell has been a focal point of the Raptors' success of late, confirming his value as a defensive juggernaut.

Just look at his box score stats in the Wizards game on January 29: 10 points on a perfect 4-for-4 shooting night, nine assists, four rebounds, and a +24 plus/minus in 27 minutes of action. His five turnovers may leave a bit to be desired, but with Mitchell in a starting role once again, he can be very effective.

While his name has conjured up some steam in the rumor mill of tradeable candidates, Toronto might be better suited to work out an extension with "Off-Night" to keep him as a defensive X-factor.

Now, we turn things over to Jamal Shead.

The former Houston product has shown to be an effective leader when he touches the court, despite his NBA career still being in its infancy. He might be a small guy, but he's got a nice shooting touch, plays quality defense, and can find his teammates in the right situation; sounds a whole lot like a couple ex-Raptors guard's, huh? (cough, cough, Fred VanVleet and Kyle Lowry).

Shead would play 21 minutes off the bench vs. Washington on January 29, where he posted these box score numbers: 10 points on 60% field goal shooting, four assists, two rebounds, and one steal.

Perhaps it was never an issue of figuring out who was more expendable or just shunning the weaker candidate; rather, Toronto just needed a stroke of luck for both guards to coexist with roles in the lineup.

There's still a ways to go before the 2024-25 campaign is all said and done, and maybe stellar play from both guys isn't sustainable long-term, but for now, at least it's all working out. The Raptors ultimately desire for their guy IQ to make his way back to full strength, but when opportunity comes knocking on the door, both Mitchell and Shead have answered to excellent results.