Latest news with #Quickley
Edmonton Journal
04-08-2025
- Sport
- Edmonton Journal
ESPN pundit rips Raptors, plus what's next for Toronto this summer
The dog days of summer are upon us, but basketball never stops and the Toronto Raptors remain busy. Article content The team's Summer League stint in Las Vegas went well, with plenty of youngsters impressing in a strong run and the veterans, including Scottie Barnes — who recently turned 24 — also getting work in. Article content Last year, the team felt it got huge benefits from a mini-camp held in Spain, improving chemistry significantly, which helped during the tough stretches of a long, losing season — so they're doing it again. Article content Article content This time, Toronto's camp will be held in Madrid at the facilities of Real Madrid. Toronto and Real Madrid have met in pre-season matchups over the years and enjoy a strong relationship. Article content Article content Chus Mateo, who was Real Madrid's head coach until being dismissed last month, even joined Darko Rajakovic's coaching staff at Summer League last summer. Centre Bruno Fernando signed with the club after being cut by the Raptors last season, joining former Raptor Serge Ibaka, who also was on the roster. Article content The Raptors will mostly go their separate ways following the camp, before reuniting toward the end of September ahead of media day in Toronto and training camp in Calgary. The well-travelled organization also will visit British Columbia, California and the U.S. East Coast during the pre-season before Season 31 tips off. Article content According to ESPN insider Bobby Marks, a long-time front office member of the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets, the Raptors helped contribute to the chilly restricted free agency market. Article content Golden State forward Jonathan Kuminga, Chicago guard Josh Giddey, Nets wing Cam Thomas and Philadelphia guard Quentin Grimes have yet to come to terms with their existing clubs or new ones via offer sheets. Article content Marks posits that Toronto giving Quickley five years and close to $160 million (it was reported as up to $175 million) a year ago has 'totally screwed up restricted free agency,' Marks said on YouTube. Article content 'That's where (the other restricted free agents and their agents) are looking at as the benchmark. Article content 'That contract screwed up a lot of things, and that's why you can't use comps … I don't think Toronto got enough heat for that number because Immanuel Quickley is not a $32-33-million (a year) guy,' Marks said. Article content Article content Article content Toronto had seen Quickley as the centrepiece of its OG Anunoby deal with the New York Knicks (even though RJ Barrett had more of a pedigree and has actually improved more in Toronto, leading the team in scoring since arriving). The former sixth man of the year award runner-up brings a skillset no other Raptor possesses (elite pull-up three-point capabilities) and one that complements Barnes tremendously in theory (Quickley only played in 33 games this season and rarely was in at the same time as Barnes in his 38 2023-24 Raptors contests). Article content Toronto bet heavily on upside and fit with Quickley's deal and will need to rely on his staying on the court and the salary cap continuing to rise significantly for people to change their minds about the deal.
Toronto Star
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Star
Immanuel Quickley has made his impact off the court a priority. The Raptors guard just won an NBA award for his efforts
The 25-year-old Quickley has won the NBA Cares Bob Lanier Community Assist Award for April, an award which 'honours the next generation of players' commitment to positively impacting their community throughout the NBA season,' the league announced Wednesday.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Raptors running out of good opponents as season drags on
The Toronto Raptors are about to run out of good opponents. Following Monday's late game in Phoenix against the a talented team that happens to be both the NBA's highest-paid group and one of its most confounding and then Wednesday's game at red-hot Golden State (winners of seven straight heading into Monday), Toronto will only play one more team over .500 the rest of the way. That would be the surprising Detroit Pistons on April 4. Otherwise it's one each against NBA-worst Washington and third-worst Charlotte, plus two against a San Antonio squad missing its two stars, a couple against Brooklyn, one against Philadelphia (only one win separates Toronto from those teams), one against free-falling Dallas and games against Chicago and Portland, both kind of eying play-in spots. Good luck being entertained by most of those ones. Toronto rested Jakob Poeltl for Monday's game, with Immanuel Quickley returning from one game of rest of his own. RJ Barrett remained out due to illness, and a number of other Raptors remain injured. Going forward expect one or two players to be sat out for rest, but not Scottie Barnes because he can only miss two of the final 14 games to remain eligible for all-NBA or all-defensive team consideration. Head coach Darko Rajakovic will continue to tinker with his lineups and even his play calls. The first play of Sunday's close loss in Portland featured something to set up a corner three-point shot by Poeltl of all people. He made the shot, his first three-pointer in four seasons, and Rajakovic mused to reporters afterwards that they'll try to get the big man more looks from outside since he's been working hard at improving there. The stretch run will be all about experimentation. Rajakovic has been tethering Quickley's minutes to Barnes to get the duo more used to playing together moving forward. Whether Brandon Ingram gets into the mix remains up in the air. The team will likely update his status again either ahead of Thursday's game against the Warriors, or in the days before Sunday's home game against San Antonio. Toronto's just 26th in free throw makes per game this season, yet in March has ranked third. The main reason is the team is simply getting to the line far more frequently than it did prior to (nearly seven times more a game). Quickley and Barrett are both getting 6.2 free throw attempts per game in March, but Quickley has hit 87.1% of those attempts, compared to only 58.1% for Barrett. Another interesting stat: Toronto was 6-2 in March before Monday's game, despite its NBA-worst 53.9% true shooting percentage for the month. The team is also last in effective field goal percentage and only two teams are turning the ball over more often. The strong record then has been a result of elite defence (only Detroit has been stingier in March) and great rebounding (Toronto's been the best offensive rebounding and third-best overall on the boards in March). This has been one of the best scoring months of Quickley's career and it continues an interesting pattern. Either with New York or Toronto, the point guard seems to save his best scoring for late in seasons. He averaged 28.8 points in April 2023, 23.2 in April 2024, is averaging 21.6 points this March, averaged 20 a game in March 2022, 19.7 in March 2023 and 18.5 last March. Those are the six highest-scoring months of his career. Toronto needs Quickley to find his rhythm earlier in seasons moving forward. This year it was tough since injuries kept him out for so long. This is also one of the best scoring months for Poeltl. He's averaged 16.2 points in five games, trailing only his November 2024 high of 16.6. Overall, Poeltl has shot a career-best 67% at the free throw line for the year, a massive improvement from the 46.5% he managed in 2019-20 while with San Antonio or even his career mark of 55%. Top Ten Canadians to watch in NCAA's March Madness tournament Raptors might want to tank but it's not happening @WolstatSun
Associated Press
08-03-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Quickley scores season-high 34 points as Raptors overcome Kessler's 25 boards and beat Jazz 118-109
TORONTO (AP) — Immanuel Quickley scored a season-high 34 points and the Toronto Raptors overcame a dominant rebounding effort by Walker Kessler to beat the Utah Jazz 118-109 on Friday night. Quickley added five rebounds, five assists and three steals in the Raptors' third straight win. Scottie Barnes had 22 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. Kessler led the Jazz with 18 points while setting career highs with 25 rebounds and eight blocks. Keyonte George also scored 18 points for the Jazz. Utah, last in the Western Conference, suffered its fourth straight loss. Raptors rookie guard Ja'Kobe Walter had 14 points, five rebounds and two assists before leaving the game in the third quarter after straining his right quad. Walter joined a long list of Toronto players who were unavailable for the game, including top scorer RJ Barrett (ankle, rest). The Raptors have won three straight games. Takeaways Jazz: Utah was hurt by poor free-throw shooting and 25 turnovers. Utah made only 23 of 39 free throws, with Kessler making only 2 of 7. Raptors: G Gradey Dick missed his second straight game. Dick, who averages 14.4 points per game, is expected to miss at least two weeks with a hyperextended and bruised right knee. Third-year guard A.J. Lawson, a Toronto native, made his first career start and made only 2 of 13 shots from the field for six points. George's floating jumper with 4:42 left in the game pulled Utah to within six points. Quickley answered with back-to-back 25-foot 3-pointers to restore Toronto's comfortable lead. Key stat Kessler had 18 rebounds in the first half to tie a Utah team record. Up next The Jazz are at Philadelphia on Sunday night. The Raptors continue a four-game homestand against Washington on Saturday night. ___
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Raptors win third straight in ugly game against awful Jazz
Break up the Raptors — wait, they tried it Friday and it still didn't work. Even without many key players, Toronto won a third straight game, this time 118-109 over the visiting Utah Jazz. The Raptors did have Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley, and the duo was more than enough to handle the truly wretched Jazz, especially a Utah team missing some of its own key components. Quickley scored a season-best 34 points, Barnes had 22, 12 rebounds six assists and some spectacular blocks and newcomer Jared Rhoden added 14. Collin Sexton and Kyle Filipowski led Utah with 17 points each. Walker Kessler had 25 rebounds for Utah, the third-most ever in a game against the Raptors. Toronto was coming off a pair of wins in Orlando, but was without starters Jakob Poeltl and RJ Barrett, who were rested for the first game of a back-to-back, injured wings Gradey Dick and Ochai Agbaji, plus big men Jonathan Mogbo and Chris Boucher. The team later lost rookie Ja'Kobe Walter to a right quad strain in the third quarter. Walter had been one of the only Raptors having any offensive success, scoring 14 points in 18 minutes. Utah had lost 5-of-6 and was without former all-star Lauri Markkanen, No. 2 scorer John Collins and bench sparkplug Jordan Clarkson. The first half was as ugly as it gets, with both teams misfiring from all over the floor (Toronto shot 32.7% in the half, Utah 36.4%). The dreadfulness allowed Jazz centre Kessler to collect 18 rebounds in the first half alone. Toronto led 92-78 after three despite shooting under 40%. Awful Utah free throw shooting (55.6% to that point) helped. Toronto never trailed in the game and rarely looked threatened despite often deploying lineups with three to five players not in the regular rotation. When the Jazz cut the lead to six in the fourth quarter, the Raptors checked Quickley and Barnes back in and Quickley quickly (sorry) doubled the lead with a flurry of three-pointers. The Raptors gave AJ Lawson the first start of his NBA career, a special moment to be sure for the Toronto native, who scored six points, but had a tough shooting night like many of the other participants. The game was a '2000s Night' promotion as part of the 30th anniversary of the Raptors. The club welcomed back long-time point guard Jose Calderon, who is in the Top 10 of many all-time categories for the Raptors, and Jason Kapono, the only Raptor to win the NBA's three-point shootout at all-star weekend. It was also one of the more sparsely attended contests of the season, no surprise with the participants a combined 36-90 for the year and more interested in improving their lottery odds than actually winning games. The crowd did manage to loudly boo the American anthem though at the first Raptors home game in over a week, an ode to the ongoing trade war brought on by U.S. President Donald Trump. @WolstatSun Raptors-Knicks lawsuit going to arbitration: Report Too good to fail: Why the Toronto Raptors can't tank properly
