Immanuel Quickley And RJ Barrett Start In Debut | Toronto Raptors vs Cleveland Cavaliers Recap

Immanuel Quickley And RJ Barrett Start In Debut | Toronto Raptors vs Cleveland Cavaliers Recap

Fans rooting for you at home what would you like to tell them oh man I’m back home baby I’m back home keep supporting the Raptors come on thanks back to you Matt RJ Barrett what a night 19 points nine rebounds in the Raptors a new year and a

New era for the Toronto Raptors as they introduce two new players in RJ Barrett and Emanuel quickley who they acquired in trade that sent longtime rap after ogan and noi to the New York Knicks a highly anticipated contest against the Cavaliers because fans were excited to

See what the new guys got and as starters they helped the Raptors Kickstart 2024 with a win past two days been past two three days been crazy um but no it’s today was a lot of fun man getting a you know getting a win um and

Just the way we started the game lots of energy uh carried us out you know throughout the game they made made a push they made a run and and we able to to to stay strong and get the dub so that was that was very important Toronto

Got out to a hot start they dominated Cleveland scoring a season High 41 points in the first quarter it seemed like having the extra offensive juice of Barrett and quickley really helped the Raptor’s offense explode and with the extra spacing provided by Barrett and quickley it was easy for Scotty Barnes

And Pascal cakam to get into their spots with both guys combining for 20 7 points in the first half and the team scoring 67 through two quarters and cakam in general just dominated throughout finishing with 36 points and five made threes yeah first uh first quarter was a

Really good uh scoring for us I I thought that game tonight was was a really fun game uh fun for for fans for everybody participating in in the game both teams they had uh stretches of playing really good offensively um that first unit there uh the pace was good the ball movement was

Good now the Cavaliers kept this thing close throughout the game thanks to 16 points from Sharpshooter Sam Merill and 31 points off of the bench for Carris Levert meanwhile the Raptors had few answers for Donovan Mitchell who finished with 26 points on the night storming the Cavaliers back in the

Fourth quarter to momentarily Take the Lead the Raptor’s defense in general felt a little out of sorts even compared to their recent wful stretch and most of their errors felt like it was because the team was getting used to the new rotation and the new players uh the only

Way you can work through it is really reps is is really experiencing it uh me and uh me and yakob uh were on the bench talking he was like what do you like what do you like and I’m like what do you like so uh just being able to

Experience it being able to talk through it and see and just knowing where everybody wants the ball is is something we we going have to continue to figure out in the end the newcomers in Barrett and quickley both showed flashes of why the Raptors traded for them them RJ the

Hometown product received an array of standing ovations and Loud cheers and his ability to feast in transition and serve as a secondary ball handler helped him to 19 points nine rebounds but also five turnovers quickly got into foul trouble early in this game but finished with 14 points six rebounds and a couple

Steals as he got to start in this game but seemed a little bit timid with his decision- making throughout yeah I I I think he was uh pretty timid tonight you know uh it’s a new team obviously emotions are running and he really tried to run the team and set up teammates and

You know to Ju Just to find um he he will have to find a good balance between it staying aggressive and scoring but at the same time making right decisions you know there there were two pick and rolls that he run with Scotty Scotty was wide

Open on the rooll he he needs to complete those passes and that’s going to be great teaching opportunity for us in you know in video and uh in the house to to find a chemistry between the two but nonetheless a good start to the new

Year for the Raptors with a win and a good start for Barrett and quickley who clearly showed what they can contribute right away to this team the team looked much more balanced and the roster just made sense for the first time in a long time and for the film room we have to

Talk about the impacts of quickley and RJ and exactly what they did and didn’t do and what they can improve on RJ Barrett was excellent in transition pushing the envelope for the Raptors in Fast Break opportunities he was really able to use his strength to be this strength-based creator for them just

Bulldozing his way into traffic and that made for some really really nice finishes here he is settling into a nice floater as well his finishing finishing package in general was great but I thought he did a great job of using the post up too to not only create shots for

Himself but for his teammates as well well and I mentioned that they’re using him as a pick and roll initiator at least to start his tenure as a raptor here he is high screen and roll empty side screen and roll with yaka purle and he finds quickly on the weak side for a

Three and while you love the aggression from RJ and you want to see more of that ultimately sometimes he gets in trouble with his aggression so here he is you know two on Five situation and he tries to get through traffic and he’s forced into a turnover here same thing here a

Little overaggressive and gets the charge call and I think sometimes he second guessed himself on some of these reads that he did make in the pick and roll here he is getting downhill but then noticing quickly a little too late before Donovan Mitchell gets to steal

Here in transition and I think this was the biggest play of the night from RJ that was a pretty bad turnover he had quickly on the strong side corner he had Scotty Barnes on the weak side corner these could have been open threes for them but instead he went all the way and

It was a turnover he got that pass to Scotty far too late and completely missed quickly you just want him to be better at you know seeing the floor uh having a little bit more vision and you know to the Knicks fans who might be watching this you’ll say well that’s

What we expected over the last four or five years these are the quirks that you hope can somehow be ironed out here in Toronto um the turnovers were an issue but I feel like especially early on I’m going to chalk that up to these guys don’t know how to play with each other

Yet and I think he was being a little over passive at times and I think that’s what was the big issue with RJ in this one now ultimately I know the warts of the type of player he is sometimes slow in decision- making sometimes uh makes you know errors in decision- making if

You will especially when it comes to going downhill sometimes has tunnel vision if you will that’s the word that people use when the think of RJ Barrett sometimes and I think that is the case he showed that tonight a little bit as well but when he is aggressive when he

Is attacking downhill in transition I think that’s the best version of RJ Barrett and we saw that as well so you got to take the good with the bad and I think ultimately you hope that you know over the next couple of years or whatever he develops into having more

Good than bad quickly on the other hand I think has a very easy case for just being offensive Dynamite very very early into his Raptor’s career he missed some shots but these are the type of looks that he makes pretty consistently you know Baseline pick and roll here that

Leads to a pull-up jumper that he misses Point Blank and I really do love his ability to attack close outs here he is getting the respect for his jumper attacks the close out settles into a floater that is patent Emanuel quickly I think this is another area where the

Raptors are going to use him more and quickly only took five threes in this game I would like him to up that to maybe 8 to 10 just because the Raptors will need his floor spacing at all times here he is isolation situation he gets the an1 floater really really tough

Finish uh that just goes to show you that he has a bag to go to in those type of situations he isn’t the best Rim finisher and I’m kind of curious to see how that looks against with this Raptor’s team uh he forced the issue a

Little bit in the second half trying to get downhill and ultimately sometimes it was successful like this floater right here but sometimes it just wasn’t and you know this shot right here is something that he makes pretty regularly but for the most part I just love the

Potential that he brings as an off ball and on ball player you see here Scotty draws the attention in the post quickly is able to use his gravity off of the ball and then attack the close out into a runner now you can use that gravity

For something else as well and I think that comes into his playmaking lat later on this was my favorite play of the game that they ran for quickly it is the chin screen play that they usually run for the back door alley pass you know they

They got it to Pascal in this one but if you look at the great thing about having quickly be the screener is that he’s so quick he can pop out above the break this is a shot that he can make and take he’s been hitting 43% on above the break

3es he can draw the defense in and now Pascal has a mismatch in the post that quickly can pass it to or quickly can attack the clothes out himself which he does here and settle into a runner he missed that but ultimately that is going to be one Dynamic play for the Toronto

Raptors because there are so many options they can go to from it I also thought there were moments where quickly flashes playmaking and I think this is something the Raptors are trying to tap into more that’s what Darko rakovich meant mentioned when I asked him about

That uh here very early in this game nice pocket pass to yakob for the dunk another pick and roll here and he uses the gravity of that pick and roll to find a shot for Pascal Pascal makes one of his five made threes and that’s it

Folks there was a lot of fun moments we’re going to have to see how this kind of just works Through The Kinks over these next couple of weeks they’re going to have to figure each other out I think that’s a big part of quickly and how

They’re going to use him in pick and roll situations on the ball it seemed like his chemistry was off with guys like yakob purle and Scotty Barnes and press Su press suu not on the team anymore uh Pascal cakam uh and I think that will develop over time you saw

Throughout this game guys were out of position guys were sometimes in the same position and those things will get ironed out as they get more used to each other I’m expecting quickly to get more opportunities on the ball I’m expecting him to be you know obviously a more

Efficient player and I think the foul trouble hurt us from watching a full game of what quickly can do defensively but for the most part I really really liked some of the weak side stuff that he was doing manipulating the defense getting into it in terms of rotations

Closing the gaps on some of these rotations he did a great job on all that stuff um and I’m just really impressed I’m mostly excited to watch the Raptors now because we have new material new stuff to watch it’s like it’s like a new season in all honesty because you have

These two new players that fundamentally change the way this team is going to play so the first 30 games of the Season you sort of have to write off um not in the sense that you know we throw away all that data but in the sense that this

Is a different team now and how this team looks might look very different to what the idea of that initial team was the Raptors came into the season as like this Defensive Juggernaut they’ve struggled on that end but now it seems with the additions of quickle and Barrett that they’re going to lean

Offense and you saw that tonight they were Dynamite offensively for the most part um how they work through the Kinks to make it an elite offense we’ll see what happens from there but ladies and gentlemen thank you very much for tapping in if you are interested tap into the objective basketball podcast we

Always got cool stuff going on there subscribe to the sdpn YouTube channel for a lot of other Raptors and NBA content and once again we’ll see you guys later take care

Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett both started in their first game with the Toronto Raptors, helping kick the new year off with a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Pascal Siakam put up 36 points and made 5 threes to hold off a late-quarter comeback from Donovan Mitchell and the Cavs.

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