How Quickley, Barrett fit with Raptors, what might be next after trade

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The first stage of the Great Raptors Retool is underway.

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OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn are out; Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett are in; and Darko Rajakovic is going to have a different group of players to work with moving forward. Of course, that’s just in the short term.

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It’s possible more major moves will follow since Pascal Siakam and Gary Trent Jr. will both become unrestricted free agents in the summer if they don’t sign new deals first. That fact is impossible to ignore when trying to sort out where the Raptors stand, but for today we will focus on how Quickley and Barrett might slot in with the existing group and how the team will try to replace the elite defence Anunoby (and sometimes Achiuwa) brought to the table.

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Expect the Raptors to quickly (sorry!) insert Quickley into the starting lineup. The question is: Will they prioritize the more reliable outside shooting of Gary Trent Jr. beside him or go with Barrett, who only came off the bench once as a Knick? Barrett has more size and can be lethal when he gets downhill, scoring well off drives and getting to the free-throw line, but he puzzlingly has finished his drives nearly 10% worse this season than last. Trent has been brutal driving the ball, but spaces the floor better, which could be a key as long as Siakam is around.

If Siakam is dealt, Barrett makes more sense starting. Right now, he might not despite his pedigree because he, Siakam, Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl all thrive and like to operate near the paint. Barrett is also used to a higher usage rate than he’d get as a starter here versus as a reserve. Barrett and Dennis Schroder would form one of the more dangerous backup combinations in the NBA.

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Or maybe Quickley’s ability to pull up and nail three-pointers (he’s hit over 40% of such attempts, which is around where some of the NBA’s brightest stars like Steph Curry, Damian Lillard and Tyrese Haliburton sit, while Trent, Schroder and Barnes were each at 27.1% or worse) or rapidly drive to the hoop, pulling help defenders off Siakam, Poeltl, Barnes or Barrett could allow Barrett to work with the starters.

Rajakovic will have options with this more balanced roster. Veteran Otto Porter Jr. and big man Chris Boucher could work nicely with a Schroder/Barrett bench unit until management makes more maneuvers.

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This is one of those deals where both sides should come away happy. Anunoby is an ideal fit in New York, especially if he’s there long term, which is anticipated given his connections with management there. Once Mitchell Robinson is back next season, New York should be an imposing defensive group and Anunoby’s shooting will improve the team’s spacing. Achiuwa will help hold the fort a bit up front with Robinson out and the team can audition him ahead of restricted free agency.

Toronto gets a perfect complementary guard for the emerging Barnes in Quickley, who wanted more than New York was willing to pay him. He’ll get his payday in Toronto and a much larger role. Barrett is a decent player now with some holes in his game. But he’s only 23 and has upside and pedigree, plus he’s the most talented of the eight Canadians Toronto has rostered. He also will be proud to come home to play for the team he grew up a fan of (though one grandfather was a big Knicks fan dating to long before the Raptors existed) and sources suggest he isn’t the type to be distracted like some players are when they come home.

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The teams talked Anunoby-Barrett last season, multiple sources told Postmedia dating to the 2022-23 season, but Toronto wasn’t interested at the time in Barrett plus multiple middling first-round picks for Anunoby. Raptors management loved Anunoby (as we’ve noted in this space more than once, they believed before the championship season that Anunoby, not Siakam, was the team’s next star in waiting and never lost faith that he was a gem), but knew that re-signing him was not a given with his fascination with joining the Knicks (or the possibility of a huge offer elsewhere, like the one Houston used to land Fred VanVleet).

Plus, once the promising Quickley became an option, too, along with Barrett and an extremely valuable second-round pick (Detroit’s selection heads to the Raptors and should be either No. 31 or No. 32 and the ensuing contract for the player selected won’t be subject to the same guarantees as first-round contracts are), the Raptors finally closed the deal.

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Assuming Quickley gets an off-season contract starting north of $25 million US and with a monster extension looming in two years for Barnes, Barrett owed an average of $27.6 million over the next three seasons, Poeltl still owed just shy of $20 million for two to three more years (he can opt out before the 2026-27 season), there still would be room to pay Siakam close to the max and duck the luxury tax with the NBA’s salary cap expected to rise significantly once a new broadcast deal is signed.

But Siakam will be 30 in April and might no longer fit Toronto’s revamped timeline (Barnes is 22, Quickley 24, Barrett, 23, Gradey Dick 20). Trent, 24 and set to earn quite a bit less than Siakam on his next contract, might be the wiser choice to keep around, even though Siakam is obviously a much better player.

The point is Toronto’s deep thinkers still have options. This was just the first domino.

X: @WolstatSun

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