TORONTO — The price shock is going to drive people crazy.
On Friday morning, minutes before the Toronto Raptors were to present two of their rookies to the media, The AthleticShams Charania revealed that the team has agreed to sign Immanuel Quickley to a five-year, $175 million contract. Quickley was set to become a restricted free agent, but his signing allows the Raptors to enter free agency knowing exactly how much wiggle room they’ll have before hitting the luxury tax threshold.
Immanuel Quickley intends to sign a five-year, $175 million contract to return to the Toronto Raptors, according to a league source. @TheAthletic @Stadium. pic.twitter.com/JEPnOyY5H5
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 28, 2024
It’s a lot of money, that’s for sure, more than I thought Quickley would get. He will have a starting salary of around $30 million, assuming a typical contract structure. On the other hand, here is the list of point guards who will make more money than Quickley next season: Damian Lillard, Stephan Curry, Tyrese Haliburton, Trae Young, Fred VanVleet, LaMelo Ball, Kyrie Irving, Ja Morant, Darius Garland, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Ben Simmons (!). Jamal Murray is reportedly close to reaching an extension deal that would take him beyond Quickley. Jalen Brunson is on a bargain and will be upgraded sooner rather than later. De’Aaron Fox and Derrick White are also eligible for extensions.
So the Raptors are paying Quickley to be an average point guard and signed him from his 25th season to his 29th season. That’s reasonable. Quickley only spent half a season as a starting point guard, but that’s the kind of bet you make if you’re the Raptors. You have to hope that your promising players can develop into really good players and outperform their contracts at some point.
His contract will likely increase by 8 percent per year, while the salary cap is expected to increase by 10 percent per year. That should take up less space by the year, as will Scottie Barnes’ max-value deal.
The danger is to think that, for this reason, these decisions have no impact, that it is all stupid money and that the agreements are without consequences. In 2025-26, the Raptors will owe Barnes, Quickley and RJ Barrett approximately $99 million. This represents approximately 63.8% of the projected salary cap for this season. Until then, will Barnes be more than an average star, which is what the Raptors are paying him to be? Can Quickley go from average point guard to starting point guard and enter the All-Star conversation? Was Barrett’s leap in efficiency late last year real, and can he make a similar leap on defense?
GO FURTHER
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The Raptors need some “yes” answers to avoid stalling with this core the same way they stalled with the previous core of Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby and VanVleet. It’s not that the Raptors overpaid for any of them and couldn’t build around them. Their contracts represented good value, hence some of the offers they received for these players while they were still on contract. It’s just that none of these players ever drastically outperformed their final contracts as Raptors. Siakam struggled with his offensive efficiency as the No. 1 option, even as he improved his game. Anunoby became an elite 3-and-D player, but couldn’t break through on his own. create. VanVleet was an average starting point guard, surpassing that at times if you took a deep look at some advanced stats.
They honored their commitments but didn’t transcend them. With the failure of player development further down the roster, it wasn’t enough for the Raptors to make the most of this mini-era.
With Barnes, Quickley and Barrett under contract through 2026-27 and beyond, that process begins again. Will this trio become more than the sum of its parts, unlike the old core? Will the Raptors get more from their draft picks and free agents than they did in the previous five years?
Or, failing that, will the Raptors be bad (or lucky) enough one of these years to add more elite talent to their roster? At this point, it appears that Duke forward Cooper Flagg and new Rutgers teammates Airious Bailey and Dylan Harper, all freshmen in college next season, would have been the top pick in the last draft and could be fundamental players in the NBA.
The Raptors might get lucky in the lottery along the way, which is how they got Barnes. But they will enter next season likely with more wins than the Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets, Brooklyn Nets, Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls. We haven’t touched the Western Conference, which admittedly has fewer teams indifferent to winning.
The fear is that by locking up Barnes and Quickley, the Raptors are targeting the cushy middle. The team would surely counter by saying that’s what things were like with DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. When you pass a few development circuits, things change. You always need the guys at the top to come together to form something more than what they are alone.
Remarks
• According to my colleague John Hollinger, the Raptors have enough money to exercise Bruce Brown’s $23 million team option, sign Jonathan Mogbo and Jamal Shead using the second-round exception and still have just under the mid-level non-taxpayer exception while still staying below the luxury tax threshold. Notably absent from those calculations: Gary Trent Jr., who made $18.56 million last season. The Raptors also have a guard-heavy roster, meaning it seems increasingly unlikely they’ll be able to retain both Brown and Trent. The Raptors must decide on Brown’s option by the end of the day Friday.
• Ja’Kobe Walter (19th overall pick) and Mogbo (31st overall pick) both met with the media Friday. Walter noted that Toronto reminded him of New York and that he was getting used to his new surroundings. Mogbo was as comfortable as any rookie in his first meeting with the press. He referred to Barnes, whom he has known since elementary school, as “Scott.” He told stories about being mistaken for Precious Achiuwa during previous visits to Toronto. He also seemed to have a strong understanding of his journey, which saw him grow to 6-foot-1, attend two junior colleges and two universities before finally appearing on the NBA radar this year.
“It was probably my senior year at UC San Francisco that I finally earned the respect of my coaches (that’s when I knew I had a chance to be in the NBA),” Mogbo said. “I had to prove a lot coming from Missouri State. Missouri State played me mostly short screens, the dunker spot, the screen-and-roll.
“There was more to my game that people didn’t see. So when I had the chance to throw back passes, to bring the ball up in transition, it opened my eyes. And I was like, “You know what? If I can get into this system, I can do great things. »And now, here I am today. »
(Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)