When Immanuel Quickley is right, he's a firecracker. His speed, shotmaking ability, and energy provides a boost that most other players can't provide. But when he's off his game, everything seems to snowball — something Knicks fans learned a while ago, and something Raptors fans are seeing after an uneven start to the season for the 26 year-old point guard.
When the voltage scoring isn't there, suddenly Quickley's scoring inefficiency and defensive volatility come into full focus, and the latter of the two becomes extra hard to ignore. Quickley's slight frame makes him an easy target for ball-handlers, and his tendency to die on screens, get lost in the shuffle, and not be able to recover in time is a rough combination. There have been multiple times in the first few games this year that Quickley has stood out for the wrong reasons on the defensive end.
These struggles compound even more because Darko Rajaković's Raptors team wants to pressure the opposing ball-handler well beyond the 3-point line. That works... When a team has point-of-attack defenders it can rely on.
I don't want to pile on Quickley, because he's not alone in his defensive struggles. Almost every Raptor has played defense like they're wearing lead sneakers so far this year. Plus, Quickley was never expected to be a plus-defender. That was never his role in New York, and no one expected a massive upgrade in that department when he headed north. But Quickley's time with the Knicks showed the Raptors enough to believe in him as a high-volume offensive option.
Unfortunately, that hasn't happened too much, either. And that's why the defensive lapses stand out more — if he were a top-flight point guard, that would compensate for a lot of the struggles on the other end. That just hasn't been the case yet.
Immanuel Quickley has yet to find consistency in his new home
Quickley's role in Toronto is secure; he signed a 5-year, $162 million contract with the team in July of last year that locks him up through 2029.
That's a big vote of confidence from the Raptors, and one the Knicks likely would have given him too, but decided to acquire OG Anunoby (good decision) instead. Now, it's up to Quickley to show that he can live up to the expectations that come with signing such a lucrative contract.
He won't do that on the defensive end, frankly. Knicks fans know that, and Raptors fans don't expect that. But if he gets his offense back on track, like Knicks fans also know he can, then the struggles on the other end won't feel so magnified. IQ is a Knicks legend, even if his time in NYC was short-lived. Watching him struggle hurts the hearts of Knicks fans, even if he's technically still a division rival.