Immanuel Quickley is about to become the latest University of Kentucky product to ink a massive second NBA contract following four strong years of play since entering the NBA.
Once a Knick, Quickley was dealt to Toronto as part of a trade to send OG Anunoby back to the Knicks in the middle of the 2024 season. After less than half a year playing for the team, the Raptors have decided to ink Quickley to an immense five-year deal to keep him north of the border for the foreseeable future.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski had the news Friday morning, tweeting out:
“ESPN Sources: Guard Immanuel Quickley intends to sign a five-year, $175 million contract to stay with the Toronto Raptors. Quickley arrived in trade with Knicks and established himself as a cornerstone player for Toronto.”
Quickley played 38 games in a Raptor uniform this past season, averaging 18.6 points per game. He also converted on exactly 39.5% of his 3-pointers both in Toronto and in New York this past season. That’s some consistency, right there.
As for the Raptors as a whole, they’re certainly a rebuilding team, but Toronto is spending money like Richard Pryor in Brewster’s Millions. They just handed out that mega-deal to Quickley and also inked Scottie Barnes to a five-year extension worth $224 million, and still have three other guys on the hook for nearly $70 million combined in RJ Barrett, Bruce Brown and Jakob Poeltl.
Brown’s price is steep at $23 million a year for effectively a role player, but Toronto does have a team option on him, so they can cut him loose if they’d like. Other than him, though, a lot of the pieces are locked down.
Looking to 2025-26, according to Spotrac, the Raptors are already on the hook for $119 million guaranteed to four players that season: Quickley, Barrett, Barnes and Poeltl. That only leaves a little bit of space before hitting the cap, and the tax aprons aren’t too far way from those.
So, despite a rebuild in Toronto, the cap is pretty tight and signing Quickley now for a somewhat reasonable price locks in the Raptors core for the next several seasons. He, Barrett and Barnes are all on similar schedules with their career arcs and age and could really develop into a nice trio over the next couple of seasons. Plus, with the east being pretty bottom-heavy lately, there could be a surprise playoff run somewhere.
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