The following is part of Raptors Republic’s preview series for the 2026-27 series. You can find all the other pieces here.
If you’ve been waiting for Immanuel Quickley to really find his place in Toronto, this could be the season where it finally happens.
Quickley has been with the Raptors for almost three seasons now, and there have been plenty of good moments. However, there have also been stretches where you look at his game and wonder if Toronto is asking too much of him.
He can score. He can shoot. He can push the pace. The problem is that he hasn’t quite been great enough at any one of those things to carry an offence by himself. And that is okay.
With Kawhi Leonard expected to join the Raptors, assuming the deal is finalized, Toronto should have a lot more players who can create their own offence. Scottie Barnes will have the ball in his hands. Leonard will have the ball in his hands. RJ Barrett can get downhill and create pressure.
That should take some of the weight off Quickley. Instead of having to run the entire offence, he can focus on what he does best: ripping the cords from deep. Quickley led the Raptors with 6.8 three-point attempts per game last season and made 37.4 percent of them. That’s right around where he’s been throughout his career, and there’s no reason to think that part of his game is suddenly going away.
He’s especially dangerous when he doesn’t have to think about the shot. Catch it. Set his feet. Let it fly. Things get a little more complicated when Quickley has to create everything himself. He’s a capable passer and averaged 5.4 assists last season, but he’s not someone who consistently gets into the paint and completely tears apart a defence. He can make the pass once the play develops, but creating that initial advantage is where he has struggled. That’s an important difference.
Toronto doesn’t necessarily need Quickley to become an elite, ball-dominant point guard. The Raptors need him to stop trying to play like one when he’s not most comfortable.
IQ doesn’t have to be the entire offence, and that’s where this 2026-27 roster could really help him out. Think about what happens when Barnes or Leonard draws two defenders. Somebody is going to be open. If that somebody is Quickley, that’s a pretty good situation for Toronto.
If the defender closes out too hard, Quickley can attack with his speed. If the defence stays home (which will most likely be a mistake more often than not), he can shoot. And if the help comes, he has shown he can make the extra pass. It’s a much simpler job than trying to create something out of nothing every possession.
There were signs last season that Quickley was getting more comfortable inside the arc, too. He shot 52 percent on two-point attempts, up from 46.5 percent the season before. That might not sound like a huge deal, but it matters for a player whose three-point shooting gets so much attention.
Outside of his actual gameplay, there is another thing that Quickley needs to do a much better job of: Staying healthy. That has been a problem during his time in Toronto. He started the 2024-25 season playing some of his best basketball, averaging 17.1 points, 5.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds through his first 33 games. Then an injury interrupted everything.
Last season ended in an even more frustrating way. Quickley suffered a hamstring injury in the regular-season finale and never made it back for Toronto’s playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. That was a huge missed opportunity.
The Raptors were good at playoff basketball; Jamal Shead was getting thrown into the fire, and Quickley could only watch. It would have been interesting to see how his game held up against that kind of physical defence, especially when their leading scorer, Brandon Ingram, went down with an injury of his own.
Entering this season, he should be getting another chance, and there is a good reason to believe Quickley can still be an important player for this team. He entered the league as a first-round pick in 2020 and immediately showed he could change a game. With the Knicks, he built a reputation as the kind of guard who could come in and score 10 points before you even realized what happened.
That player hasn’t disappeared. Toronto just hasn’t always found the best way to use him. If Leonard is around, Quickley should have more room to operate. If Leonard sits, there will be nights when Toronto needs Quickley to take on more responsibility. That’s the balance the Raptors need to find.
Make the open threes. Keep the ball moving. Push the pace. Attack when the defence gives him an opening. Make enough plays off the dribble that teams can’t simply ignore him. Most importantly, stay on the floor. If Quickley can do that, this is the season where everything starts to make more sense.
