Immanuel Quickley's 'old-school mentality' braced him for new chapter with Raptors

DETROIT Immanuel Quickley has been thinking about the money for a long time just not for the obvious reasons.

I literally wrote Im a hundred-million-dollar player, probably five or six years ago, way back when I was in college, a sweat-soaked Quickley said back in October during Toronto Raptors training camp, recovering from intense pick-and-roll repetitions with teammate Jakob Poeltl.

I have it still, to this day.

I write (in) a journal, and I put it on a piece of paper, and I put it on my refrigerator in college.

...

I actually ended up getting more than a hundred million.

Advertisement That would be $162.5 million, with incentives that could push the deal to $172.5 million over five years.

It was one of the offseason deals that came with the most sticker shock , a big commitment for a player who had started 65 of his 291 career regular-season games up to that point, as well as a guy whose scoring efficiency has dropped notably in the playoffs compared to the season.

It is a lot of money.

The reaction doesnt bother Quickley, though.

Its not the money that matters, even if, yes, it is nice.

It is what the money said.

He has had to wait patiently at multiple stops on his basketball journey before he could be near the centre of things for his team, including for his first three-plus years in the NBA with the New York Knicks.

In his fifth season, he was supposed to help determine the fate of the Raptors, serving as Scottie Barnes wingman.

You work your whole life to be in situations like this, to be able to not only do things for yourself and for your family, but inspire other people, he said.

Through that (reciprocal commitment between team and player), other people are able to believe in you and trust you.

So, I dont take it lightly.

I dont take it for granted.

The need to wait followed him to Toronto.

A wrist injury kept him out of the preseason.

He suffered a pelvic contusion in the first half of the season opener, costing him two weeks and eight games.

Two games into his return, he partially tore the ulnar cruciate ligament in his left elbow, putting him in street clothes for another 22 games over seven weeks.

He returned to the lineup on New Years Day, exactly a year after he played his first game for the Raptors.

He played another six games before a groin injury put him on the bench for eight more.

By the time he returned to play in seven of his teams final eight games before the All-Star break, the Raptors were 15-32, near the bottom of the standings, having lost several close games earlier in the season that his shot-making and intelligence might have turned.

Advertisement He was supposed to be one of the faces of the Raptors rebuild.

Instead, he had to settle for being a voice.

I think, if anything, I probably (spoke) maybe even more (than usual when he was injured), because thats really the only way you can help, Quickley, 25, said.

So, just try to (help) in any way I can help, especially being a young team just all the experiences Ive been through, what Ive been able to learn.

I try to give back to the guys.

Quickley might have a goal-setting problem.

In Quickleys rookie season, lottery pick Elfrid Payton was the New York Knicks starting point guard.

Frank Ntilikina, whom the Knicks selected with the eighth pick in 2017, was still on the roster.

Quickley came into the year as the 25th-overall pick after winning SEC Player of the Year in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 NCAA season, but he had played just two seasons at Kentucky.

As former Kentucky and Knicks assistant coach Kenny Payne put it, some of the Knicks coaches and brass thought a frail guard still figuring things out would need to go to the G League.

Not so.

Quickley showed he belonged, playing in 64 of 72 regular-season games and all five playoff games against the Atlanta Hawks.

The season was the start of the franchises renaissance.

Halfway through it, Quickley leap-frogged Ntilikina in the rotation.

When Payton got injured, Quickley got his first NBA start against the starry Brooklyn Nets.

James Harden was the focus of the defensive game plan, but Quickley would have to guard Kyrie Irving.

He was so excited to be playing against him and wanting to show me (what he could do), Payne recalled.

And I was like, You can show me all you want.

At the end of the day, the man is going to get 40.

...

Unless I have someone I can call and tell (Irving), Please dont (destroy) him, this is like watching your son fall into a gorilla cage at a zoo.

Advertisement Quickley had 21 points, but Irving had 34 efficiently and the Nets won.

Quickley speaks openly about not being afraid of failure, about even being excited by it.

He might need to do a deeper dive into what constitutes failure.

He was good enough to be a starter (in his second year).

He knew it.

He felt it, Payne said.

He may have been coming off the bench, but in his mind, he was never coming off the bench.

In his mind, he looked at himself as a starter.

And all he cared about was helping the team win.

The adversity of it was more (because of) the goals he set for himself.

Its happened a lot, man, Quickley said of having to mix in some self-love to combat his ambition and self-criticism.

Im just really competitive, and I want to be the best.

I want all the individual stuff as well as the team stuff.

His upbringing and the nature of his young career shaped that mindset.

Quickley is the son of Marcellous, a pastor in the Pentecostal church, and Nitresse, who played on the Morgan State womens basketball team before becoming an English teacher.

Marcellous started watching his sons games only once he got to college , so strict was his view on potential obstructions to living a Christian life.

Payne, now at Arkansas with John Calipari, said that was the first thing he noticed about Quickley upon recruiting him.

Quickley also mentioned his faith several times when discussing his path to the Raptors.

He mentioned reading the Bible to help him stay sane while injured.

It has been paired with something else.

Quickley went to Kentucky behind two other freshman guards: Ashton Hagans and Tyler Herro.

At The John Carroll School, Quickleys high school in Maryland, he played behind two Canadian seniors to start.

By the end of his sophomore year, Tony Martin, who coached Quickley for his first two years of high school, was drawing up plays for him at the end of big tournament games.

We told him we were going to give him the keys to the car, Martin said of Quickleys growth.

At that time, he was probably 16.

He played like he was a 36-year-old veteran.

Advertisement That could be considered Quickleys best trait: a thirst to be the best player possible and the engine of whatever team he is on, but an ability to channel that desire positively, even if he is not in his ideal situation.

Despite wanting to be a starter, Quickley was runner-up for Sixth Man of the Year in his third NBA season.

He accepted a bench role at Kentucky while Herro turned himself into a lottery pick and Hagans ran the show.

When his negotiating window for a rookie extension came and went last season, Quickley publicly praised starter Jalen Brunson while his representatives pushed the Knicks for the type of deal he eventually got from the Raptors.

Brunson, another modestly sized guard whos also listed at 6-foot-2, was the player standing between Quickley and that sort of commitment its hard to commit starter-level money to two smaller guards, especially with new rules that offer harsher penalties and restrictions for teams that spend beyond the luxury tax and into the two aprons.

Many traditional and advanced statistics said that, before he was traded to the Raptors for OG Anunoby, Quickley was playing as well or better with the Knicks than he did in his breakout year in 2022-23.

Another uneasy balance to strike: The need to prove himself as a scorer, given his initial roles, to two coaches, Calipari and Tom Thibodeau, known for their strong preferences for defensive structure and in-season stability.

At both levels, Quickley had to continue to shoot from further and further, perfecting his 3 and trademark floater, not able to rely on his ordinary-by-NBA-standards burst or leaping ability.

For him to have the courage to be able to expand his game at the Garden, and do some of those things at the Garden under a guy like Thibs, Martin said, I think that shows incredible foresight as well as confidence in himself.

Quickley spoke of Calipari criticizing his shot selection, as much as a test of his confidence as a reprimand.

Some of them shots he took and made confidence is through the roof, added Barrett, who was traded with Quickley from the Knicks to Toronto.

But thats Quick.

He works so hard every single day.

Hes one of the hardest workers Ive ever seen.

When hes out there and doing that, hes confident, and were confident in him.

To this point, Quickley has been viewed as a microwave scorer.

That explains much of the external consternation about the contract that will pay him, for now, like a near-All-Star starting point guard.

Quickley wants more for himself than that, and knows it might require a redesign of his game.

On the third day of Raptors training camp, Quickley, who didnt participate in much of the action because of a thumb injury, was shirtless and sweating on the multi-lined, multi-sport court in Montreal.

The floor evoked more of an intramural gym vibe than a professional training ground.

Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl was to his right, a few staff members in between them.

Advertisement With the majority of the other Raptors either decamped to the edges of the gym to get changed or working on their shots, both members of the teams projected primary pick-and-roll combination were still chugging.

It wasnt their first meeting, either.

The pair worked together in Miami, where a group of Raptors trained together in the offseason, with Quickley inviting Poeltl and Bruno Fernando, who was on a non-guaranteed contract, to his home.

(The Raptors recently waived Fernando.) I think its probably the most detailed Ive gotten as far as the two-man game within the pick-and-roll, said Poeltl, who has also worked with Dejounte Murray, Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan and Fred VanVleet.

A scorer for his professional career, Quickley has to become a better playmaker.

In Toronto last season, his assist percentage zipped up compared to his career numbers.

His turnover percentage rose, too, but not exorbitantly.

I used to live in a little apartment, one bedroom, so I never invited anybody to my place in New York, Quickley said.

But now its just inviting guys over, trying to bring the team together, trying to find chemistry on and off the floor.

I think thats a big part of what were trying to do.

...

Chemistry and playing hard go a lot (further) than just talent and just getting on the court and just throwing up a ball and trying to score the most points.

The front office is taking the ultra-long view, with Quickleys work with Poeltl, Fernando and others allowing the team feel good about the strong commitment.

No, Quickley has not yet shown he can be a high-level starting point guard, much less an All-Star at the position.

He has not had the opportunity.

In head coach Darko Rajakovics system, the role of point guard might be overstated, anyway.

He and Barnes will be co-initiators more than Quickley being a floor general and Barnes being a roll man or wing scorer in isolations.

Part of the reason Kentucky recruited him, former assistant Joel Justus said, was that he could naturally play off other stars and did not need the ball in his hands.

That will continue to be the case in Toronto.

However, Barnes turnover issues while Quickley was out indicate how important his sure hands are.

More than being a point guard on the court, Quickley is trying to demonstrate the soft skills often associated with the position.

This summer, Quickley traveled to Johannesburg with Rajakovic for Basketball Without Borders.

The pair stopped in France to watch Barrett and Kelly Olynyk play for Canada at the Olympics.

They headed to Spain after that, where the whole team convened.

Advertisement Quickley wants to lead.

He just does not do it in a scowly, in-your-face way.

Justus, now with Ohio State, remembered one frustrating period of Quickleys sophomore season when nobody was especially happy.

A practice became chippy.

It was getting a little handsy, Justus said.

And I can remember him really speaking, saying, Hey, were not doing this.

Were gonna get better in here.

...

I think thats where his leadership was coronated, that day.

Be loud, but be loud about the right things.

Payne called Quickley a giver and not a taker at a time when most people are takers.

He also referred to him as a pleaser, which he saw in the guard when he devoured both Caliparis and Thibodeaus playbooks.

Quickley said he was very frustrated to get injured so early in the season.

Still, his voice did not quiet.

As Quickley sat courtside in Detroit at a shootaround before a game earlier this month, he looked to his right and saw Jamal Shead.

The 45th-overall pick has become the Raptors backup point guard.

Without Quickley, he split time with Davion Mitchell.

If Quickley had been healthy, Shead would have probably been in the G League with Raptors 905.

Actually, my first preseason game was here, and I didnt get on the floor at all when I was playing with Thibs, Quickley said.

I know what its like to have to work your way up from the bottom.

Part of doing that is taking advantage of every opportunity you get, no matter how many minutes you get.

That injury didnt stop him from being a great leader and being a great teammate, Shead said.

Him just being himself and being a good light around here and also trying to teach and help me with as many things as possible that just speaks to his character and his leadership all right there.

Quickley can even rationalize his setbacks.

Advertisement It was probably not in my best interest that I was hurt, but guys were able to have bigger roles and have to step up in that light, Quickley said.

Everything happens for you, it doesnt happen to you.

A few weeks later, following his groin injury, Quickley contemplated how his first two-thirds of the season have gone for him.

Before this year, an ankle sprain that cost him a summer of skill work was the worst injury he had dealt with.

It certainly wasnt followed by a series of other ailments.

Individually, Im proud of the way Ive been able to battle mentally, Quickley said.

I think its credit to who I am as a person and who (God is) in me.

To me, its the mindset, Raptors president Masai Ujiri said on media day when asked why he felt comfortable paying Quickley more on projection than on prior performance.

What kind of mindset do you have and what kind of work ethic do you have and what kind of person, character are you? Quickley has actually been showing us that hes very, very capable of these things.

And he will try.

He will try his best.

...

And thats all you ask.

Were in professional sports.

Were getting paid to do it.

His time and payday came, and business continues as usual for him.

Thats what he showed us.

Garrett Temple knows the National Basketball Players Associations responsibilities.

Temple, entering his 14th season and on his 12th team, has been a vice president with the NBPA since 2017.

Its not the PAs job to explain it to the public, Temple said.

Thats not our job.

And so, we dont really worry about what they think.

Simply, the players are entitled to half of the leagues basketball-related income, and the new national television deals, which begin next year, should keep revenues rising.

What looks like an overpay now could just be a standard deal or even, a good one for the Raptors in two years.

Advertisement Just look at Brunson, whose four-year, $104 million deal with the Knicks was immediately cited as an overpay by many onlookers when he signed it in 2022.

It ended up being one of the most team-friendly deals in the league.

That is a credit to Brunson for becoming an All-NBA guard.

At the time he signed it, Brunson had a little more experience as a starter and a bit more playoff success than Quickley did heading into this offseason, but not so much that the comparison is wildly off base.

Also, Quickley doesnt have to produce as much as Brunson has to make the deal work out for both player and team.

That doesnt stop the initial reaction from coming.

A guy who has started 65 games in the first four years of his career is now guaranteed at least $162.5 million over the next five years? It is undeniably jarring, even when the context is provided.

More pressingly, even as the cap likely rises, the penalties against teams for spending too much for rewarding their own players too often are getting harsher.

The Raptors have chosen Quickley, along with Barnes.

The trade for Brandon Ingram will add a third long-term cog who is making more than $30 million annually to that picture.

The money the Raptors have paid Quickley bring pressure that didnt exist when he was a sixth man on a rookie deal.

The length of Quickleys absences, followed by a predictably rocky return to play, will only brighten the spotlight associated with the dollar figure.

I believe that he feels in some way that he has been groomed for this responsibility, these types of moments, Martin said.

And I really think that goes back to a strong faith.

Youre talking about a young 20-something who has the world at his fingertips, and, sometimes, you can go off the rails or work less hard.

I think because hes not a God-given freak athlete ...

he understands where his bread is buttered.

Its in his work, his fundamentals and his determination, all of those intangible things that got him to this point.

Immanuel Quickley, Payne said, has an old-school mentality.

Quickley missed six games in March last year after the death of Shawn Hamilton, a maternal uncle he referred to as a second father figure.

Hamiltons picture is on the lock screen of Quickleys phone, a reminder, Quickley said, that hes playing for something more than himself.

Quickley said it seemed as if Hamilton cared about his two sisters, which included Quickleys mother Nitresse, more than he cared about himself.

That extended to Quickley, and it resonated, too.

The money, the experience, the loss: It all informs Quickley of how he wants to be now that a franchise has, without hesitation, put him squarely at the heart of its rebuild.

That doesnt change who I am as far as the values that I have, what I believe in, Quickley said.

(The responsibility) has nothing to do with the money, but just my mindset, my belief in it and what I believe in..

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