Young point guard excelled after trade from New York and will be key part of core
The Toronto Raptors unofficially locked up another key piece of the team’s core, point guard Immanuel Quickley, on Friday.
Quickley will sign a five-year deal with Toronto worth up to $175 million US, the Athletic’s Shams Charania first reported.
The deal, which averages $35 million a season, will likely be officially completed after the Raptors take care of other business for salary cap reasons.
Quickley was acquired from the New York Knicks, along with RJ Barrett, who has three years and about $84 million remaining on his current deal.
Together with Gradey Dick and rookie Ja’Kobe Walter, Toronto has the makings of a young core in place.
Centre Jakob Poeltl has two years left on his deal, with a player option on a third year, but it’s unclear if he has a long-term future with the club since he turns 29 in October and this will be a multi-year rebuild/retool.
Quickley broke out in a starting role, averaging 18.6 points, 6.5 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game, shooting 39.5% on three-point attempts. Quickley turned 25 earlier this month and still has untapped upside, but Toronto is betting on continued improvement with the deal, which is above market value (roughly $27 million a year) for starting NBA point guards.
Keep in mind though that the salary cap is expected to rise significantly as a new broadcast rights deal kicks in moving forward, so both sides clearly factored that in with the deal.
Quickley previously had been used as an instant-offence scorer in New York and finished second in sixth man of the year voting two seasons ago. But with Jalen Brunson established as an all-star starting point guard, New York and Quickley’s camp were unable to find a pathway to a new contract, which precipitated his deal to Toronto.
OG Anunoby, who went to New York along with Precious Achiuwa in the deal, just agreed to a deal with the Knicks worth up to $212.5 million over five years.
Quickley made the ninth-most pullup three-pointers per game in the NBA after the all-star break, despite Barnes being injured for many of those contests, and shot 41.3% on those attempts, third amongst all high-volume shooters (at least 1.5 pullup three-point attempts per game).
He also had an 18-assist game, two off Fred VanVleet’s franchise record.