Is Immanuel Quickley about to take off?

With more opportunity in Toronto, can Immanuel Quickley take a leap? In this enhanced segment from the Thinking Basketball podcast, Ben and Cody break down former New York Knicks point guard, his impressive impact numbers, similarities to Tyrese Maxey in Philadelphia, and explain how he might grow as the Raptors full time point guard.

–Full episode–
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3eCWLwCxEM
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Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/245-is-quickley-a-diamond-in-the-rough-are/id1428290303?i=1000640975393

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Twitter: @elgee35

Ben Taylor is the author of Thinking Basketball, a Nylon Calculus contributor, creator of the Backpicks Top 40 series & host of the Thinking Basketball podcast.

Stats courtesy:
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https://www.basketball-reference.com
https://stats.nba.com
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Footage in this video is owned by the NBA and its partners. It is intended for critique and education.

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Let me give you my theory now for why Emanuel quickley might be a potential star that was hidden in his role in New York having to come off the bench um first of all have you seen Tyrese Maxi play yes yes I have a couple times okay

So there’s a ton of similarities in their games right not just the fact that they like to wear the same number and the same hair and went to Kentucky but they are both super quick quickly his namesake is incredibly quick off the bounds he is a tremendous shooter from

The outside Cody and the thing that jumps out to me right away with him is how he’s able to get into his shot off the ball in different angles and different ways so whether that’s like a handoff game or movement and like really Creative Cuts to get into space and then

The the release on some of these shots where he catches and turns and squares and quickly fires so he can play handoff he can play and come off a screen um transition cut back pick up a handoff and fire from like 27 feet he just has

That going staying off ball so you can play next to other Elite Talent he can catch it up fake and then attack the close out and he has that floater game which we’ve also seen from Maxi and Maxi is probably a little bit more expanded than quickley he can like touch it off

The glass and things like that but quickley great with that floater he’s very quick with the up fake and getting to the basket and that’s all off ball stuff and then on ball he can kind of pull up from three in pick and roll situations and use that shot and that

Speed as well to kind of like fake you out in the pick and roll and get downhill and attack the basket when there’s space so I think just right away there’s kind of like a blueprint for a player offensively who if he can handle

The volume and I think he can could be a similar archetype guard to what we’re already seeing in Philadelphia like you said it’s the quickness it’s his his first step that allows him to get into the paint the finishing ability Ben I’m a little less impressed with it I think

Like he maybe takes off a little too soon sometimes to try and finish a shot he maybe should take that Gap dribble you’ve talked about it quite a bit with Kevin Durant but there’s a lot of times from like just one more dribble just take one more dribble and that pass is

Going to open up or take one more dribble and and this shot will just be a little bit easier like get get a little bit more nashing in your offense instead of like trying to take this like wrong-footed Lefty like 10- foot layup sort of thing but beyond that like the

Speed that he’s able to get the paint in is is fantastic and then off ball what really helps is not just the shooting but he’s so decisive when he’s off ball so decisive like he catches and he can get that shot up really quickly but what

I actually like a lot better with him is is when he catches and he just immediately like darts into the paint like the guy is just like left in the dust cuz they’re trying to close out to him and like Tyrese Maxi swinging it to the opposite side boom all of a sudden

He’s getting into the paint so I do love the decisive action off ball and then on ball like you said using his burst of speed to Able be able to get downhill if we’re directly comparing to Maxi I don’t quite think the passing is there I don’t

Think the finishing is quite there the handle is quite there but I see what you’re saying with the archetype of the kind of style that he brings to his offensive game yeah it’s I completely agree with that the passing is not quite there uh sometimes he’ll miss a pass or

The the idea is there but the accuracy can be a little bit off but I also wonder how much that comes from opportunity and you talk about things like taking an extra dribble or changing his strides and getting a little bit more creative as he finishes he’s 24

Years old this feels like something he can realistically improve as he gets more repetition and think of his former teammate we looked at Jaylen Brunson when he was in Dallas and we said the signs are there for him to be a great starting point guard and he went to New

York and had that opportunity and he’s expanded his game quickly when you stay with the offense when Brunson was off the court in New York this season quickly averaged 26 points per 75 possessions on 60% true shooting that’s actually slightly better scoring output than what we saw from Maxie in

Philadelphia when Harden was off the court or when embiid was off the court last season or the year before so this kind of indicators that he could be able to handle more volume and scale a little bit more offensively are there and I think we’ve seen a little of that from

Toronto just in the sort of opening few games he’s played and he’s been given more opportunity to Fire and attack and kind of uh increas his volume that way another thing I like about quickly Ben I hate to be like super nerdy and reductive about it but you look at the

Dude’s like yearly onoff ratings his onoff net ratings you know we’re talking about like a A plus 6 and a half a plus 13 and a half a plus eight a plus eight a plus eight Ben like those aren’t like weak signals that’s the kind of uh the

Kind of Arc you see in the young player that’s going to blossom into like a long I don’t want to say Allstar sub All-Star kind of career where you’re just contributing to high level teams so he’s led the Knicks in plus minus every year he’s been there and that’s pretty rare

Okay and if you look at the list of players to do that in their first four seasons you’ll get names like Chris Paul Shaquille O’Neal Dirk nitzki Tim Duncan Baron Davis Jason kid LeBron James you you’ll just get a list of mostly Stars there’s the occasional Kyle corver but

It’s very rare for for him to do this or anyone to do this and I think that’s why there’s such an Intrigue for me because if you look at those numbers they say he’s really good defensively so when you watch him on ball I don’t think it’s

Electric I don’t think that’s what his strength is uh he can move his feet a little bit but he’s small some guys can put their body into him he certainly has the size issue when he switches on players I know in the Christmas game against the Bucks Giannis he was like

Great position but Giannis just stamped him once and probably got him one other time because of his size so that’s always going to be an issue but he has great instincts for where to position himself off ball he always is biasing toward the paint meaning he he’s like

Lingering around the paint looking to see what’s happening throwing his body in front of a roller and just deterring that roller from getting a layup or something easy or making him kick it out or preventing the pass from getting there in the first place he communicates

A ton on defense they the Knicks often had him sort of on the backline talking a ton in different coverages out there and things like this and then the last thing which I know you love is the motor he’s just flying around and bouncing around out there and that from a team

Perspective is a really interesting set of skills to have that makes you say okay if he’s on a good team he can continue to just be a positive impact quote unquote winning player because his overall team defense is something that fits with a bunch of different types of

Schemes and he’s really aware and he can contribute positively in that way I’m so glad we’re here because I do think that defense is the fascinating Point About Emanuel quickley cuz like you said you watch like traditional defense you’re like he’s not locking people up but the

First thing that pops out like you said it it blows my mind that this is he’s a 63 guard B 63 but he has a six eight arm span like 68 wing span so he’s able to get in contestant people he constantly loves getting in front of the rib and

Getting his arms up and even though he’s not necessarily like a defensive playmaker in the sense that he’s like you know he’s sprinting in the pain and he’s getting a steal he’s sprinting in the paint and like blocking a shot at The Rim but he can legitimately rim rim

Protect a little bit just by the sake of like being there being willing to throw willing to throw his body out there and use his length in away this is what you want on defense like you want a guy that’s putting in multiple efforts I’m thinking of one play I can’t even think

Of exactly who they were playing but he contested on the perimeter two different three-point shots from two different players in like a 5-second span like he gives it his absolute all and when you think about like what you want from a defensive team a defensive player like

He has that like that energy you bring is just in it’s infectious is that the word I’m trying to say it’s infectious uh he he’s just fantastic I I enjoy watching him on defense actually more than I do on offense thanks for listening you can the full episode of this thinking basketball

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