Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett are important pieces of the Raptors rebuild.
Toronto finally picked a direction when they traded O.G. Anunoby and Pascal Siakam.
The Anunoby trade landed the Raptors two young starters with tremendous upside to pair alongside Scottie Barnes.
Quickley and Barrett have impressive in their Raptors tenures so far. Quickley has looked like the team’s franchise point guard averaging 18.6 points, 6.8 assists and 4.8 rebounds on 39.5 percent shooting from deep in 38 games for Toronto.
Meanwhile, Barrett has been playing the best basketball of his career on the Raptors.
He put up 21.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists on 55.3 percent shooting from the field and 39.2 percent from deep in 32 games for the Raptors.
Quickley was recently on FanDuel’s Run It Back and he shared the story of when he and Barrett got traded to Toronto. Quickley said Barrett was excited once he learned he was going to be playing for the Raptors:
“RJ he’s a legend in Toronto, before he even put on a Raptors jersey..as soon as I got traded I looked outside my hotel room because we were still in Indy [Indiana] and RJ was just like this [had his arms up in excitement], he couldn’t wait to get to Toronto. He was excited to go back home obviously being from Mississauga.”
Barrett was born in Toronto and raised in nearby Mississauga. He was a Raptors fan growing up and now he gets to play for his favorite team.
Barrett seems extra motivated ever since arriving in Toronto. He’s been more consistent, efficient and aggressive, showing off his ability to get to the rim.
If the Raptors are going to get back to contention they need someone else on the team to take a leap. Perhaps that player will be Barrett in his second season with Toronto.
Immanuel Quickley talks about upcoming free agency
The Raptors biggest priority this summer is locking up restricted free agent Quickley.
The young guard spoke about his upcoming free agency and said that he loves Toronto and wants to be back with the Raptors.
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