I don’t know how much there really is to take away from the Raptors’ opener, other than it’s really hard to beat a good team when an interesting small-ball lineup’s worth of rotation players is sidelined before the end of the first half.
Toronto was already in tough against Cleveland with RJ Barrett, Kelly Olynyk, Bruce Brown and Ja’Kobe Walter — the 3rd, 6th, 7th and potentially 9th guys in the rotation — on the shelf. When Immanuel Quickley crashed to the floor in the second quarter, it more or less iced an already teetering result. Darko Rajakovic said they’d do all the requisite imaging on IQ’s contused pelvis on Wednesday night into Thursday, and you really hope the fall was louder than it was injurious. Quickley was the best Raptor on the floor in his 14 minutes of action. Slick handles, eager on the pull-up, and the type of guard play that brings shape to a team. It’ll be a shame if he’s sidelined again so soon after shaking the thumb injury he carried into camp.
One thing that might help dull the sting if Quickley does need to sit out some games: Jamal Shead is a G.D. boss.
With Quickley unavailable for the second half, Shead took turns with Davion Mitchell running point as the Raptors mustered what they could to cut into a steady 20-to-30-point Cavs cushion. The best moments of that March 2024-like stretch came with the second-round rookie at the controls.
This is the type of stuff that’s gonna make this season palatable even if the losses pile up. Shead dropped a composed 10 points, 4 assists, a board and 2 steals on 3/7 shooting and 3/3 from the line. A rookie, in his first game, deftly handling the job he figures to occupy here for a while — that rocks no matter how badly you’re getting crunched by a very good Cavs team.
If Quickley misses time, there’s a real case for Shead to start. It’s just the preseason plus one game, of course, but it seems clear when you bake in his resumé of prolific college team guidance that Shead is the best backup point guard on this team. Davion Mitchell may be Quickley’s direct understudy for now, but trying him as a cutting, slashing, defense-first off guard once the backcourt rotation is whole again might be the way to best optimize him. He’s a great at-rim scorer for a guy his size, which doesn’t matter when defenders go 10,000 leagues under every screen set for him as a pick-and-roll operator.
That Shead looks this ready this soon feels like a real have your cake and eat it too scenario, if the Raptors are hungry: an important rookie gets plenty of developmental run, while your second-draft flier gets moved to a role he’s more likely to pop within. Everybody wins, especially card-carrying members of the Jamal Cabal, who can’t get enough of the rookie’s burst and punch and maniacal defensive work rate.
In the joyful silver linings department at least, Shead has the Raptors off to a rollicking start.
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Today on the podcast, I go solo with more on Shead, Mitchell, Scottie Barnes’s struggles and more from the Raptors’ season-opening loss to Cleveland. Enjoy!
