One of the hottest debates surrounding the Toronto Raptors through the early part of this season is which starting spot needs an upgrade more: point guard or center?
While there’s no denying how brutal Jakob Poeltl has been this season, having Collin Murray-Boyles behind him and now starting ahead of him makes that area just a little bit less concerning. Also, given Poeltl’s long-term contract situation, the chances of flipping him, even with other assets attached, may not be possible. That brings me to Immanuel Quickley, who has been trending down for this team since an awesome opening-night performance where he looked like the lead guard this team needs.
The immediate pushback to a lot of negativity around IQ is that when Kawhi Leonard returns, his off-the-ball scoring ability is only going to be amplified more. But that’s the issue right there. His best trait is scoring and moving without the ball. I don’t care what position you look at in basketball; you aren’t a point guard if your best trait is playing without the ball. The thought for a while was that Scottie Barnes could act as the starting point guard and Quick could play off of him, but with Barnes anchoring the defense, that’s just asking too much of him.
So my answer to what spot needs to be upgraded first, center or point guard? It’s a rather easy one: point guard.
Immanuel Quickley's inconsistency is holding the Raptors' offense back
It would be unfair to say the majority of Toronto’s half-court struggles were on Quickley, but I do think a better lead guard would make those struggles less severe. His inability to just go and make a play when the offense breaks down is really painful. Don’t get me wrong, he can hit a late-shot-clock three after someone throws him a grenade, but he isn’t someone you can ask to go create his own offense in big moments.
Also, the playmaking is still all flashes. His playmaking is like a toxic situationship: every time you're ready to move on, a short stretch of greatness pulls you right back in, only for it all to vanish shortly after. A prime example of how up and down his playmaking can be came against Denver when he had six dimes in the first half and finished the game with seven. But also, that’s just who Quickley is as a player: super inconsistent, which is my biggest issue with him at the lead guard spot.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s awesome to have a player who can get hot and give the Raptors a quick 10-0 run on their own, but that is more of a sixth-man skill than a starting point guard one. The number of times we’ve seen IQ have one great half and one half where he did zero to impact the game has been way too high for me to feel safe with him at the one in a playoff series.
This team needs someone who can keep the offense pulsing every time he’s on the court, not just in different patches throughout a 48-minute game.
Do I have a solution to this issue? Not really. Kyrie Irving was always an interesting potential upgrade, but that doesn’t appear to really be an option right now. Maybe Darius Garland is an upgrade? But even he has some of the same issues as IQ, so I’m not sure. But what I am sure of for the moment is that Immanuel Quickley being this team's starting point guard come playoff time is putting a serious ceiling on this group.
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