NY Knicks: Immanuel Quickley shines — what is his potential?

The NY Knicks young guard Immanuel Quickley had himself quite a game yesterday in the team’s 2nd NBA Summer League game.

After losing to the Toronto Raptors the day before, New York bounced back to defeat the Indiana Pacers 94-86. Immanuel Quickley led the charge, pouring in 32 points, 8 assists, and 2 steals.

NY Knicks: Immanuel Quickley’s potential is under debate

Immanuel Quickley was the subject of a lot of criticism in the team’s first Summer League game. As a sophomore who was named to an All-Rookie team, expectations for him to perform in the Summer League are high.

Quickley is the best player on New York’s Summer League roster.

He’s someone who thrived coming off the NY Knicks’ bench last season as a dynamic, sparkplug scorer. Now, he’s being tasked with playing heavy minutes and running the team’s offense.

Even with his strong rookie season, the debates about Immanuel Quickley’s potential have been happening all season long.

There are some who think his career-long role in the NBA has already been set in stone as a scoer off the bench and there are others who believe he is just scratching the surface of what he can become.

Is he a future star? A solid bench player?

NY Knicks: What the stats say about Immanuel Quickley

Immanuel Quickley played an important role for the Knicks in 2020-21, although many wished he would have gotten more consistent playing time.

Still, I wouldn’t say that Thibodeau “stunted his growth” whatsoever — Quickley played 19 minutes per game for a team that finished 4th in the Eastern Conference and of course, finished with an All-Rookie 2nd team selection. He certainly exceeded his pre-draft expectations.

So while Quickley’s per game stats are obviously not going to stack up with LaMelo Ball or Anthony Edwards, there are some indicators that he can grow into one of the best guards from his draft class.

B-Ball Index absolutely loves what the advanced stats say about Quickley. He was their rookie of the year.

One of B-Ball Index’s most popular metrics is their LEBRON tool, which is meant to track both offensive and defensive impact per 100 posessions.

Of all players who played 1000 minutes in 2020-21 and were 22-years-old or younger, only Luca Doncic, Zion Williamson, Michael Porter Jr., and Trae Young had a higher LEBRON rating than Immanuel Quickley.

We know him primarily as a scorer. He has a nice array of 2-3 dribble combos, a lethal stepack, and a knockdown floater. His shooting is nothing short of spectacular.

While his 3-point shooting percentage of 38.9% is great, it’s still doesn’t do justice to how excellent of a shooter he really is. In the same way that Devin Booker is a 34% 3-point shooter and Bradley Beal is 34.9% 3-point shooter, those percentages aren’t the full story.

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Quickley takes a lot of deep, difficult jumpshots. As he grows as a scorer, he’ll be able to find better looks. It takes some guards a few years to incorporate 4-5 different moves to get buckets. You don’t need to be Luka Doncic and have multiple elite moves for every level of scoring, but you want to be able to keep adding to your moveset to the point where defenders can’t always predict how you want to score.

When he doesn’t have the ball, Quickley is a knockdown shooter. His shooting is the bread and butter and is what opens up his whole game.

The real question that could dictate what his ceiling in the NBA is: How effective is he with the ball in his hands?  Is he… a point guard?

NY Knicks: Is Immanuel Quickley a point guard?

Who cares. No seriously, this conversation is getting silly.

With the amount of high-end point guards in the league today, and with how horrendous the Knicks’ point guard situation has been in recent years, there seems to be a longing, a beckoning, a desperate plea that is intrenched in NY Knicks fans minds that they need their “point guard of the future” to succeed.

Quickley, who played point guard in high school but was more of a 2-guard in college, came into league with the “tweener guard” label. It’s a label that I’ve noticed has cursed some young players’ draft stocks and lingers with them into the NBA.

Just looking at some guards from the recent 2021 draft: Cam Thomas, Bones Hyland, Davion Mitchell, Jared Butler — so many guys having this “are they a point guard or a shooting guard?” conversation that shrouds them in confusion, and it’s conversation that more often than not has a negative connotation to it. It causes people to lose sight of the simple question… “are they good at basketball?”

The “tweener” label needs to be modified to have a more positive meaning. Really, it’s a scoring guard with some point guard skills. It’s a combo guard. That’s Immanuel Quickley.

From what I’ve seen in his rookie season, I do believe Immanuel Quickley is a good passer who has some point guard skills. He’s calm with the ball in his hands, good at keeping his dribble, can operate a pick and roll, and he can make some nice 1-handed whip passes.

Physically, there are some things that do limit him: His strength, and straight line speed aren’t exceptional, so it can be hard for him to find space when driving on tough defenders.

Quickley does look for his shot a lot, but that’s ok, so does James Harden, Stephen Curry, and Damian Lillard.

It’s unfair to compare Quickley to those players, but it’s also unfair to limit his ceiling as a “spark-plug bench scorer”. You know who wasn’t a “point guard” and was a great spark-plug off the bench in his rookie year? James Harden.

So who are some high-end players that Quickley could replicate in his NBA career?

NY Knicks: Can Immanuel Quickley grow into an All-Star?

Prediciting a career trajectory for anyone is tough. It’s especially tough for a young player who isn’t really guaranteed starter-level minutes in the NBA as of now.

What we can be confident in his scoring, especialy off-ball. He’s going to be a lights out shooter for years to come.

His dribbling isn’t quite as tight and finessed as some other guards, but we’ve seen players compensate for that with long strides, crafty hesitations, and other nuances of ball-handling. I believe as he continues to grow, like so many guards before him, he can be that guard who can average around 4-6 assists per game with heavy minutes.

If the NY Knicks had a gutted roster and Immanuel Quickley was a starting guard playing 30-35 minutes per game, he’d be averaging around 18 points or more per game. No doubt in my mind.

You could write a laundry list of areas he could still improve because, well, he’s only going into his sophomore season.

Whether it’s developing different shots, getting comfortable with more screens and angles, creating more space with different dribble combos, Immanuel Quickley will get better with experience and repitition.

Being a guard in the NBA isn’t easy, and it takes some time for a lot of players to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. The best players are adding new elements to their game at age 30.

If I’m to think of some high-end comparisons for what I believe Immanuel Quickley can grow into, I do tend to lean towards some 2-guards who have nice playmaking skills, or guys who took leaps in their playmaking later in their careers.

If I’m to list guys who Quickley has “shades of”, I think of CJ McCollum, Eric Gordon, Kyle Lowry, Lou Williams, Darius Garland, or go back even further to guys like Jason Terry or Mo Williams.

At the end of the day, there’s just one Immanuel Quickley. He’s already gained plenty of attention from star players around the league.

At the end of the day, whether he’s a “point guard” doesn’t really matter. You stick him on the perimeter and you let him have the positive impact that he had all throughout his rookie season.

With Derrick Rose, Kemba Walker, and Alec Burks on the roster, it’s safe to expect Quickley will have a similar role to what he had last year with the NY Knicks. The true “breakout” may have to wait, but don’t worry, this kid has a long career ahead of him. Immanuel Quickley is just getting started.