NBA Insider says Raptors made a bad signing this summer: Is he right?

Immanuel Quickley’s contract isn’t the disaster Hollinger makes it out to be

This isn’t the place to try and stick up for the Raptors’ front office over the past five years; they have certainly had their fair share of missteps. They also pulled off a few brilliant trades and drafted Scottie Barnes, but who’s counting?

Was Hollinger fair in his criticism of the Immanuel Quickley contract? Yes and no. On the one hand, he was dead-on that the Raptors seemed to take their leverage in the negotiations and punt it into the moon. They agreed to a deal early that was above market value; that’s something of an own-goal. As with the max extension for Scottie Barnes, the Raptors were extremely risk-averse in handing out money freely and quickly (no pun intended).

Where Hollinger is less than fair is his portrayal of Quickley himself and how he compares to the rest of the league. After speaking positively about Quickley as an above-average player, pointing to strong shooting and underrated defensive chops, as well as a runway to improve given his age.

Then Hollinger simply shrugs that off by saying his time in Toronto last year was "a bit hard on the eyes". Perhaps the nature of the piece was not to dive into statistics, but he essentially says "he looked worse, just trust me" without actually supporting it.

That wasn't the only mistake Hollinger made in his analysis.