Four games in, and that's all we've seen so far from the Toronto Raptors. While the season opener was an absolute masterclass — perhaps that set a bit of a gaslighting tone — the subsequent games have been, to say the least, horrendous). I get that it's still ridiculously early in the new year, but Raptors Nation (both analysts and fans alike) has been left scratching their heads at how discombobulated the flow has become in such a short time, now falling to a three-game losing streak.
And speaking on that point, one of the unfortunate suspects largely at the center of this criticism has been lead Raptors guard Immanuel Quickley. Quickley is undoubtedly a key focal point of the Raptors' core, not only because he's in the starting lineup but also because he is the third-highest-paid player on the team behind Brandon Ingram and Scottie Barnes.
Quickley set the tone coming over from the Knicks in the OG Anunoby trade, looking a solid point guard successor in Toronto after the eras of Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet had come to pass. Toronto went deep into their budget to keep IQ around, offering him a five-year extension worth $175 million, which in hindsight looks like an abrupt decision based on what other RFAs have warranted since.
In the aftermath of the Raptors' loss to the Bucks on October 24, I wrote about how coach Darko Rajakovic had a blunt call to action for Quickley, expressing his discontent with his shooting woes. Rajakovic said he doesn't care if IQ isn't efficient, but he needs to at least be getting those reps up to get into rhythm. Well, what Rajakovic failed to address is: how long of a window does Immanuel Quickley have to reach that goal?
Immanuel Quickley continues to struggle in his murky Raptors role
He is shooting an atrocious 18.2% from three on the year (only seeing 4-of-22 attempts go down) and while he's still dishing out a fair amount of assists (currently averaging 7.0 assists on the year), you can easily argue that guys like Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram can provide the same level of playmaking as IQ. So, when your lead guard can't buy a bucket from deep — something that is supposed to be his calling card — are you really satisfied with the bare minimum?
We've had these conversations before, all throughout the offseason, but the sad reality is, the Raptors might have forced Immanuel Quickley to be a starting point guard when he's not really effective at defending guards of similar stature (Cole Anthony and D'Angelo Russell had a field day against him), and his focus is too scoring-heavy to be a true floor general. With that being said, the Toronto Raptors are really stuck with having to wait out an eventual IQ rise, which mind you, is still entirely possible seeing as the new campaign is just getting the ground running.
But perhaps his ceiling was always to be a microwave or spark plug scorer off the bench, like he was on the Knicks, and the Raptors got too trigger-happy trying to make him a prototypical point guard. Like I said, the potential is still there (I don't think he's at the point of no return per se), but at what cost will it have on Toronto's winning ways in this very critical season?