This is what Immanuel Quickley wanted.
He never demanded a trade from New York, but it was clear he saw himself as something bigger than what the Knicks could provide. He didn’t want to be a role-playing backup point guard on a team led by Jalen Brunson. With his free agency on the horizon, the 24-year-old wanted more.
But a bigger role has come with pitfalls for Quickley whose numbers haven’t quite been the same since he joined the Toronto Raptors in early January.
His shooting efficiency numbers have tumbled as he's gone from being an above-average shooter to slightly below-average overall. His pull-up three-point shooting that was once the best in the league has fallen to 29.7% since joining Toronto and his touch inside the arc hasn’t been the same either.
Why?
A lot of it is how Quickley is being used. He's been asked to play more on the ball alongside Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett in Toronto compared to in New York. That’s meant being forced to take tougher shots without the threat of elite weapons playing alongside him to create extra space.
It’s also come from Quickley being a more respected part of Toronto’s attack. He’s no longer the fourth or fifth option on the scouting report for other teams. Instead, he’s a top weapon for the Raptors and is being treated as such.
“It's one thing when you come off the bench and then you play against second second-unit guys. The other thing is when you're a starter on a team and one of the most important players in the team, different kinds of defenders are guarding you, different kinds of coverages, a different teammate is setting a screen for you,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said Wednesday.
That’s taken some adjusting that hasn’t come immediately to Quickley.
“He's trying to be aware of where his teammates are, how to find them, to find a balance between being aggressive and to run the team. And that's not a skill that you obtain overnight,” Rajaković added.
But Toronto isn’t worried.
The organization still sees Quickley as someone to pair with Barnes moving forward. One hot streak will get those numbers back up to his career average, Rajaković said, and it shouldn’t be long before Quickley starts to find his groove alongside his new teammates.
“I see a lot of potential and I see that we are just scratching the surface,” Rajaković said of Quickley.
A week off to regroup away from the team has allowed Quickley to really focus in on the stretch run of the season. He’s still learning how to balance being aggressive and playmaking for others, but this is part of the process for the team's new lead guard.
“I'm having fun learning all of it because this is what I wanted,” he said. “I wanted to be challenged and this is what I wanted.”
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