Immanuel Quickley

Raptors Notes: Boucher, Barrett, Quickley, Dick

October 3rd, 2024 at 10:54pm CST by Tristan Tucker

Chris Boucher is entering his seventh season with the Raptors at age 32, and his long tenure with the team is a testament to his skill and professionalism. He entered his stint with the Raptors on an Exhibit 10 deal, battling it out for a two-way contract. He was with Toronto for the club’s 2019 championship and has since fluctuated between being a sixth man, key rotation piece, and veteran mentor.

However, his 14.1 minutes per game last season represented his lowest mark since the 2019/20 season. He received 15 DNP-CDs and wasn’t happy about the lack of minutes, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca.

“When you’ve got a career or you played a lot of years, you get kind of lost in how many minutes you’re playing and all and you forget about a lot of little things,” Boucher said. “I did a lot of that in the summer, work on that just to make sure my mind’s at the right place to start the year.”

However, Grange emphasizes that Boucher’s relationship with coach Darko Rajakovic is in a good place, despite the lack of minutes.

“Coach is doing a really good job to teach me the game and make me a better leader, a better vet,” Boucher said. “I think that’s something I needed a lot to work on and this summer, I took a lot of time for that.”

We have more from the Raptors:

RJ Barrett‘s transition to Toronto last season after being acquired in exchange for OG Anunoby went about as well as it could have. He averaged 21.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists while shooting 55.3% from the field, all of which would have been career highs over the course of a full season. Despite his impressive offensive season, Barrett recognizes he has a ways to go on the defensive side of the ball, Grange writes in another piece. “If you want to win, it starts with defense,” Barrett said. “And I’ve been practicing it, working on it, especially during the summertime. That was huge for me to just get reps defensively, and now just keep working on it. Every day, you know, coaching, drills, playing, keep that mindset of defending and keep going that way.“
Immanuel Quickley has been spotted sporting a brace on his wrist after practice. According to Blake Murphy of Sportsnet, this is mostly precautionary after Quickley suffered a sprained thumb at a workout leading up to training camp. He has been participating in non-contact portions of training camp and is not expected to miss any time in the regular season due to the injury.
Second-year wing Gradey Dick looks to have bulked up this offseason, Murphy notes in the same piece. Adding strength was a part of Dick’s offseason planning and he’s officially listed as eight pounds heavier than he was last season. Dick was 205 pounds last year at 6’6″ and averaged 8.5 points per game while shooting 36.5% from three.

Atlantic Notes: Raptors, Celtics, Horford, Nets

September 15th, 2024 at 1:56pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Raptors appear to be embracing a youth movement this season, with young players like Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett leading the charge.

In a mailbag, Eric Koreen of The Athletic says he doesn’t project that Toronto will achieve more than a potential play-in berth, but he does believe the club has enough depth that it could compete for a seventh or eighth seed in the Eastern Conference. Koreen notes that Barnes needs to grow as a scorer, Quickley as a distributor, and Barrett as a defender.

Within the same mailbag, Koreen also projects the team’s starters, speculates on possible breakout surprises on the current roster, and more.

There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

The reigning champion Celtics look like the favorites to repeat in 2024/25, but it’s going to cost them. Keith Smith of Spotrac unpacks the club’s future salary cap situation, noting that Boston agreed to almost $514MM in new long-term contracts during the 2023/24 league year before extending Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, and Sam Hauser this offseason. By 2025/26, Boston is already committed to pay almost $445MM in combined salaries and luxury tax penalties for 11 players, Smith writes.
Celtics sixth man big Al Horford was recently honored with the Order of Merit of Duarte, Sánchez, and Mella in the degree of Knight from Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader, reports Kurt Helin of NBC Sports. “I knew I was going to come meet the president, but I didn’t know I was gonna get the highest award for the country,” Horford said. “So, very special for me, very special for my family. I feel very proud right now, very overwhelmed with a lot of emotion. Very, very special day for me today.” Across a decorated 17-year career, the 6’9″ center has made five All-Star teams, one All-NBA team and one All-Defensive team. He’s now an NBA champion as well.
The rebuilding Nets will boast a roster featuring several young players looking to carve out a niche in the league. In a new piece, Net Income of Nets Daily examines which five Brooklyn players have the most to prove heading into 2024/25, a list highlighted by former top lottery picks Ben Simmons and Killian Hayes.

Atlantic Notes: Sixers, Batum, Dolan, Raptors, Nets

September 10th, 2024 at 10:59am CST by Luke Adams

The Sixers couldn’t have asked for a much better outcome after entering the summer armed with cap space than coming away with free agents like Paul George, Caleb Martin, Andre Drummond, Eric Gordon, and Reggie Jackson in addition to re-signing Tyrese Maxey, Kelly Oubre, KJ Martin, and Kyle Lowry.

Still, as Tim Bontemps of ESPN observed on the latest Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link), there was one free agent the 76ers had hoped to re-sign who ended up leaving Philadelphia after seriously considering the possibility of a new deal with the team.

“The one thing you could say that’s a disappointment for the Sixers from the way everything went is they were really close to getting (Nicolas) Batum back,” Bontemps said. “He was going back and forth – at least from my understanding – (between) going back to Philly or going back to the team that traded him, the Clippers. I think family played a part in him going back to the Clippers. He was pretty comfortable out in L.A.”

Although the Sixers added Guerschon Yabusele late in free agency, there’s no obvious starting power forward on the roster, Bontemps notes, so a player like George, Martin, or Oubre will likely slot in as a somewhat undersized four.

“Obviously, (Batum) slotted in perfectly for them as a power forward,” Bontemps said. “… He was a critical piece for them last year. If he’s on the roster, things look a lot different.”

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link), Knicks owner James Dolan continues to express his discontent with the NBA’s league office, announcing in a letter to his fellow team owners that he plans to vote against the league’s proposed operating budget for 2024/25, as well as the election of a new Board of Governors chair. Those votes will be conducted on Tuesday in New York. Dolan, who has made a habit of criticizing the NBA and commissioner Adam Silver, is citing a lack of transparency as the reason for his “no” votes, Wojnarowski adds.
Within a mailbag for The Athletic, Eric Koreen tackles questions about why the Raptors‘ front office is no longer looked up on as favorably as it once was, why Bruce Brown hasn’t been traded yet, and whether the team overpaid to retain Immanuel Quickley and Scottie Barnes, among other topics. Koreen acknowledges that Quickley’s five-year, $162.5MM contract (which includes another $12.5MM in incentives) is based on projection and comes with real risk, but says he doesn’t understand criticism of the deal for the five-year max deal for Barnes, who won a Rookie of the Year award and made an All-Star team in his first three NBA seasons.
C.J. Holmes of The New York Daily News (subscription required) considers whether Nic Claxton and Cam Thomas, among other Nets, will see their play-making responsibilities expand under new head coach Jordi Fernandez, based on how Fernandez’s previous offenses in Denver and Sacramento operated.

Contract Details: Quickley, Barnes, Batum, Jones, CP3, Oubre, More

July 10th, 2024 at 7:15am CST by Luke Adams

Initially reported to be worth $175MM over five years, Immanuel Quickley‘s new contract with the Raptors actually has a base value of $162.5MM, according to Blake Murphy of Sportsnet (Twitter link). It also features $12.5MM in unlikely incentives – $2.5MM per year – that would allow the guard to max out at $175MM if he earns all of them. But for now the cap hits for Quickley will be $32.5MM annually.

Meanwhile, the “Rose rule” language in Scottie Barnes‘ new five-year, maximum-salary extension with the Raptors is fairly straightforward, Murphy notes (Twitter link). Barnes will have a starting salary worth 30% of the 2025/26 salary cap if he makes any All-NBA team – first, second, or third – next season, or if he wins MVP or Defensive Player of the Year. If he doesn’t earn any of those honors, his starting salary will be 25% of the ’25/26 cap, with 8% annual raises from there.

Based on the NBA’s latest salary cap projection, Barnes’ five-year extension would be worth $224,238,150 if it starts at 25% next year’s cap, or $269,085,780 if it starts at 30%.

Here are more details on a few of the contracts recently finalized around the NBA:

Nicolas Batum (15%) and Derrick Jones (5%) each received trade kickers on their new contracts with the Clippers, Hoops Rumors has learned. Batum’s deal is worth the full bi-annual exception ($9,569,400 over two years) with a second-year player option, while Jones’ three-year, $30MM deal was completed using a significant portion ($9,523,810) of the mid-level exception. Los Angeles still has $3,298,190 left on its MLE for now.
Chris Paul‘s one-year contract with the Spurs has a guaranteed base value of $10.46MM, with unlikely incentives that could push his total earnings as high as about $12.03MM, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. That structure allowed San Antonio to create the extra cap room necessary to accommodate Harrison Barnes‘ incoming salary while also putting Paul in position to earn more his initially reported salary of $11MM.
Kelly Oubre, whose two-year, $16,365,150 contract is worth the Sixers‘ entire room exception (and features a player option), waived his right to veto a trade in 2024/25, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. Kings center Alex Len gave up that right as well on his one-year, minimum-salary contract, Hoops Rumors has learned.
As expected, the contracts signed by new Kings guard Jordan McLaughlin and new Pelicans center Daniel Theis are one-year deals worth the veteran’s minimum.

Atlantic Notes: Simmons, Clowney, Bridges, Barnes, Quickley

July 9th, 2024 at 9:05pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Ben Simmons‘ agent tells The New York Post’s Brian Lewis that his client will be 100 percent by the start of next season, but there’s plenty of uncertainty regarding his future. The Nets guard played just 15 games last season before he was shut down due to lingering back issues.

“Ben has been doing his rehab and prep work for the upcoming season in Miami. He is through the rehab stage and has moved on to strength and conditioning,” Simmons’ agent, Bernard Lee, said. “Because there have been so many starts and stops previously I’ll simply say he’s in a great place and the expectation is he’s able to start the season 100 percent of himself ready to go.”

Where Simmons fits into the team’s plans next season is unclear. Given his health issues, his value to the club at this point is centered around his $40.3MM expiring deal, which will open up ample cap space next summer if he’s not traded.

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

With the Nets trading Mikal Bridges and going into a rebuild, Noah Clowney could get an expanded role in his second season, Lewis notes. Clowley was selected with the 21st pick in 2023. “It’s an opportunity [for me] so I can’t [waste it],” Clowney said. “No shade to [Bridges]; that’s my dog. I love him; but to see us going into more of a rebuilding standpoint, that’s an amazing opportunity to me, and I gotta try to take advantage of that.” Just trying to build with what we’ve got is my main focus. The picks, I leave that to the people who decide all that; I just try to do my part, play hard and be enthusiastic about everything we’re doing. So, opportunities will be fun.”
Bridges expressed his exhilaration over joining the Knicks, where expectations will be sky-high for their first championship since 1973, according to ESPN’s Chris Herring. “It’s surreal. Coming here, it makes me feel like a young kid again, with all the memories. When I think about basketball when I was young, and the old school, it was always the Knicks,” Bridges said during an introductory press conference. “That’s what you think about. MSG. The New York song. All that stuff.”
The Raptors are betting big that they can build around Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley, Michael Grange of Sportsnet writes. Both players were rewarded with five-year contracts this offseason. To back the front office’s commitment, Barnes needs to play well enough to be considered for an All-NBA team and Quickley needs to become an All-Star level guard, Grange says.

Atlantic Rumors: Trent, Quickley, Knicks, Kessler, Bertans, Celtics

July 9th, 2024 at 10:25am CST by Luke Adams

Although the Raptors haven’t entirely closed the door on the possibility of bringing back free agent wing Gary Trent Jr., his return appears increasingly unlikely based on how the team’s offseason has played out, says Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca.

As Lewenberg observes, Toronto sacrificed much of its cap flexibility by taking on salary in a trade with the Kings and exercising Bruce Brown‘s team option. The club also added a wing in the first round of the draft, selecting Ja’Kobe Walter with the 19th overall pick. The 15-man roster is now full, with little breathing room below the luxury tax line.

When the Raptors’ negotiating window with Trent opened last month, they were willing to offer him an annual salary in the neighborhood of $15MM, a source tells Lewenberg, but the swingman’s camp was seeking a raise on last year’s $18.5MM salary, possibly up to $25MM or so.

Toronto wasn’t prepared to meet that price, and it doesn’t look like there are any rival suitors who will go that high either. One league insider tells TSN that Trent would be lucky at this point to receive the full mid-level exception (worth about $12.9MM). The Raptors no longer have on offer on the table for the 25-year-old, according to Lewenberg.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

The Jazz and Spurs, among other teams, had “real” interest in restricted free agent guard Immanuel Quickley before he agreed to sign a five-year, $175MM contract with the Raptors, Lewenberg writes, which is one reason why that deal came in higher than expected. Quickley’s new deal will be worth a flat $35MM across all five seasons, Lewenberg adds, so it’ll start at just under 25% of the salary cap in 2024/25 but that percentage will drop each year as the cap increases.
Echoing previous reporting, Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter video link) confirms that the Knicks have inquired on Walker Kessler, but says he’d be surprised if New York makes a deal for the third-year center, given the Jazz‘s asking price, which includes “at least” a first-round pick.
The Knicks are among the teams that have expressed some level of interest in free agent sharpshooter Davis Bertans, sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
After the Celtics officially re-signed centers Xavier Tillman, Luke Kornet, and Neemias Queta, director of player personnel Austin Ainge said he’s “extremely grateful” to have all those players back and suggested that one or more of them could have landed more lucrative deals elsewhere. “We had some guys turn down more money other places to come back,” Ainge said, according to Brian Robb of MassLive.com. “It feels really good that guys we care about a lot to come back and go for another run.”

Raptors Re-Sign Immanuel Quickley To Five-Year Deal

July 8th, 2024 at 9:04am CST by Luke Adams

JULY 8: The Raptors have announced the new contract with Quickley (Twitter link).

“Immanuel embodies so many things that are important to our team,” team president Masai Ujiri said. “… He wants to win and he will be a Raptor for years to come. We are very high on I.Q. – our point guard of the future.”

JUNE 28: Immanuel Quickley, a restricted free agent this offseason, intends to re-sign with the Raptors, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the guard will receive a five-year contract worth $175MM.

Quickley, the Sixth Man of the Year runner-up in 2022/23, was the centerpiece of the Raptors’ return in the OG Anunoby trade with the Knicks in December, arriving in Toronto midway through the season along with RJ Barrett.

The fourth-year guard averaged 18.6 points, 6.8 assists, and 4.8 rebounds per game with a .395 3PT% in his first 38 games as a Raptor, establishing himself as part of the team’s long-term future.

As we wrote when we ranked Quickley seventh in our list of this summer’s top 50 free agents, Tyler Herro (four years, $120MM, plus incentives), Jordan Poole (four years, $123MM, plus incentives), and Devin Vassell (five years, $135MM, plus incentives) were expected to be a few points of comparison for the guard’s contract negotiations this summer.

While it remains to be seen if Quickley’s $175MM will be fully guaranteed, the 25-year-old appears poised to land a bigger payday than any of those players by securing an annual average value of $35MM per year.

It’s the second major financial commitment the Raptors will make to a cornerstone piece this summer. The team also reportedly intends to sign Scottie Barnes to a five-year rookie scale extension that will begin in 2025/26 and will be worth a projected $225MM.

Neither deal can become official until July, and Toronto may not rush to formally complete Quickley’s deal, since his cap hold is just $12.5MM. If they end up operating under the cap, the Raptors can use up all their room while keeping that hold on their books, then go over the cap using Quickley’s Bird rights to sign him to his new deal.

Quickley is the fifth free agent in the top 10 of our top-50 list to reach an agreement with his team during the new exclusive negotiating window between the end of the NBA Finals and the official start of free agency on June 30. He joins Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, Nic Claxton, and Malik Monk as players who have agreed to remain with their current teams. The other players in our top 10 are Paul George, Tyrese Maxey (who is considered a lock to remain in Philadelphia), LeBron James, DeMar DeRozan, and James Harden.

Option/QO Notes: Green, Watanabe, Bertans, Barlow, Kings, More

June 30th, 2024 at 6:50am CST by Luke Adams

Saturday represented the deadline for teams and players to exercise 2024/25 contract options and for teams to issue qualifying offers to players eligible for free agency. While there was a flurry of news about those options and QO decisions yesterday, a few players still slipped through the cracks.

We’ll start with Rockets forward Jeff Green. Reporting last week indicated that Houston planned to exercise his $8MM team option for 2024/25 and the team did just that, per RealGM’s transaction log. Green’s salary technically remains non-guaranteed until July 11 even now that his option has been picked up, but the expectation is that he’ll be retained — his expiring deal could be a useful salary-matching piece in a trade, and he also played rotation minutes for Houston last season, averaging 16.8 MPG in 78 appearances.

While there was no official confirmation on Saturday (as far as we could tell), Grizzlies forward Yuta Watanabe had long been expected to decline his $2.65MM player option for the 2024/25 season, since he’s on track to return to his home country of Japan and play for the Chiba Jets. There’s no indication that those plans have changed or that he picked up his option, so we’re assuming it was declined and that he’ll be off the board for NBA teams this offseason.

Finally, Davis Bertans‘ option with the Hornets was technically an early termination option rather than a player option, meaning that instead of needing to actively exercise it if he wanted to opt in, he needed to do nothing to opt in. He did just that, and will remain under contract with Charlotte for the time being, rather than becoming a free agent. However, his $16MM option salary is only partially guaranteed for $5.25MM, so he’s not assured of having the rest of that salary guaranteed, especially if the Hornets are looking to maximize their cap flexibility this offseason.

Here are a few more updates left over from a busy Saturday:

Dominick Barlow, a 21-year-old forward who has spent the past two seasons with the Spurs, didn’t receive a qualifying offer to make him a restricted free agent, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). San Antonio isn’t necessarily planning to part ways with Barlow, according to Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News, who tweets that the Spurs still have interest in discussing a new deal. However, he’ll have interest from other teams as well, says Wojnarowski.
The Kings didn’t tender qualifying offers to their three players eligible for restricted free agency (Kessler Edwards, Jordan Ford, or Jalen Slawson), confirms Sean Cunningham of FOX 40 Sacramento (Twitter link). All three players will be unrestricted free agents.
According to RealGM, players who did receive qualifying offers that weren’t previously reported (that we saw) include no-brainers like Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey and Raptors guard Immanuel Quickley, as well as Mavericks two-way player Brandon Williams.
We’ve previously published trackers for this year’s team option decisions and player option decisions, which are now fully up to date. We’ll be posting a full qualifying offer recap later this morning.

Raptors Notes: Mogbo, Quickley, Shead, Chomche

June 28th, 2024 at 1:54pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Raptors selected San Francisco’s Jonathan Mogbo with the first pick in the second round because they like his game, but it didn’t hurt that he was a childhood friend of Scottie Barnes, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN. The former AAU teammates grew up together in Florida and still train together during the offseason. General manager Bobby Webster said the team wasn’t aware of their friendship – which dates back to the fourth grade – when it started scouting Mogbo.

“Around the league a lot of guys grow up playing with each other, and I think those relationships are fun to see from afar, but you can probably imagine the basketball [piece] has to work and we have to like him as a player,” Webster said. “By doing that it creates a basis for that relationship to be fun, and I’m sure they enjoy it, but he has to fit as a basketball player first.”

Mogbo is only 6’6″, but he was used as a big man in college because of his 7’2″ wingspan. He’s considered a potentially elite defender with a questionable shot, but the Raptors are impressed by his versatility and believe he can adjust to a wing role in the NBA.

“It probably feels like a bit more of a Raptors pick,” Webster added. “An athletic wing who can do a little bit of everything. There’s probably some development curve for him, shooting-wise. But I think, physically, [he has an] NBA body… He can really run, can really jump. So that felt like us; the makings of a two-way Raptors wing.”

There’s more from Toronto:

There may be some “sticker shock” regarding Immanuel Quickley‘s new five-year, $175MM contract, but it should wind up being an average salary for a starting NBA point guard, contends Eric Koreen of The Athletic. Koreen points out that 11 point guards will already earn more than Quickley next season, and Jamal Murray, Jalen Brunson, De’Aaron Fox and Derrick White may surpass him soon. Koreen adds that Quickley will get 8% annual raises while the salary cap is expected to rise by 10% each year, so the new contract will steadily become less burdensome.
Although they opted to keep the 31st pick, the Raptors’ front office got plenty of phone calls between Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon, Koreen states in a separate story. Webster is among several executives who prefer the new draft format with the first and second rounds on separate days. “There’s a little interesting dynamic in the late first, early second, and that’s what we’ve kind of found with 31,” he said. “In some ways teams would almost prefer the early seconds. They cost a little bit less (against) the tax.”
Toronto appears to have promised a guaranteed contract to Houston guard Jamal Shead, who was selected with the 45th pick. Sources tell Kelly Iko of The Athletic that the NCAA’s Defensive Player of the Year turned down more than a dozen two-way offers before getting guaranteed money from the Raptors (Twitter link).
Toronto paid $1MM to acquire the 57th pick from Memphis, sources tell Michael Grange of Sportsnet (Twitter link). It was used to select Cameroon center Ulrich Chomche, making him the first player ever drafted from the NBA Academy Africa, which Raptors executive Masai Ujiri helped to develop.

Raptors Notes: Poeltl, Olynyk, Quickley, Barnes, Porter

April 17th, 2024 at 7:31pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Raptors expected to win a lot more than 25 games this season, but there’s more optimism than disappointment as players look to the future, writes Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. While a series of injuries led to a nosedive after the All-Star break, there’s a feeling that things will be different with a chance to start over this fall.

“I think for sure there’s a lot of things to be excited about,” said Jakob Poeltl, who missed the final 21 games with a dislocated finger. “You could see that at times when we had our guys out there on the court — we really had limited time playing together — but still it felt good, and it looked good, and the results were there. And I don’t think those were outliers; it was more that almost all of the losses were more of the outliers than when we were actually performing.

“So that gives you a lot of confidence. That gives me a lot of hope looking forward to next season, to be able to show that more and to be able to show that from an overall talent perspective I don’t think we are where we’re supposed to be in the standings. To be able to show that will be cool.”

Grange notes that the team went through a major upheaval in the middle of the season, as seven players were traded away within six weeks, including franchise cornerstones Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby. In addition to Poeltl, Scottie Barnes and Chris Boucher also suffered season-ending injuries, while the deaths of relatives took RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley away from the team for a while.

“The dominos just fell,” said Kelly Olynyk, who was acquired from Utah at the trade deadline. “Injury, injury, injury, obviously, personal stuff that you can’t discount, guys having to be away from the team, that was a tough stretch there.”

There’s more from Toronto:

Quickley sounds eager to re-sign with the Raptors in free agency this summer, Grange adds. The 24-year-old guard averaged a career-best 18.6 PPG after being acquired from New York in late December. “I’ve absolutely loved Toronto since the day I got here,” Quickley said. “They’ve done nothing but show me love. Love is an action word. It’s not just something you just throw around. They’ve done that from the day I got here to today. So obviously the team and my agent have to handle everything, but I love being here in Toronto absolutely.” The Raptors can make Quickley a restricted free agent by submitting an $8.5MM qualifying offer.
The most encouraging thing to come from Toronto’s season was the progress of Barnes, who reached a new level before a broken finger put him out of action on March 1, observes Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports. “I played against Scottie when I was younger,” Barrett said. “But seeing it up close and personal every day, it’s amazing what he does. He does everything.”
The Raptors issued a statement after the NBA announced Jontay Porter‘s lifetime ban for his involvement in a gambling scandal, Lewenberg tweets. “The Raptors are fully supportive of the league’s decision to ban Jontay Porter from the NBA and are grateful for the swift resolution to this investigation,” it reads. “We will continue to cooperate with all ongoing inquiries.”

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