[Hollinger] Against whom was Toronto bidding? Quickley was a restricted free agent, giving the Raptors all the leverage; meanwhile, I’m struggling to find the rival that was going to commit to paying him anywhere near this kind of money on an offer sheet.
by EarthWarping
35 Comments
>In any event, I’m not sure Toronto’s 2024 offseason will be the one that turns the tide. The rebuilding Raptors gave a two-year, $25 million extension to a 33-year-old Kelly Olynyk and immediately watch him look dead-legged in the Olympics…
>I think Quickley is an above-average player: He’s a good shooter, an underrated defender and a nearly Kyle Lowry-esque foul grifter. Advanced metrics love him, and, at 25, he’s still young enough to get better.
>That said, his transition from playing mostly off the ball in New York to mostly on it in Toronto was a bit hard on the eyes at the end of last season, more than the top-line numbers make it look.
>For a player of Quickley’s caliber, that’s … wow. He’s basically making the same money this year as James Harden!
>Yes, there are other reasons for some limited optimism — RJ Barrett looks great, for instance, and this same front office has pulled rabbits out of hats before. In the moment, however, it feels like the Raptors painted themselves into a bit of a salary-cap corner without a roster that’s worthy of such a commitment.
This just shows how the Organization feels about Quickley, they had him for year and comfortable giving him this kind of money. After a few years of having players in contract limbo this is a breathe of fresh air, signalling that MLSE is willing to pay up. fuck hollinger
There are 43 players making more money than James Harden, so that’s a totally meaningless point to make.
Olynick looked so bad in the Olympics. Siakam trade keeps getting worse.
The Siakam trade bothers me, paying IQ doesn’t.
He’s not wrong but the organization really believes and is betting on IQ to take that next step.
He needs to prove he can be close to or at an allstar caliber player as the lead guard over the contract.
We don’t attract free agents, and we rely on goodwill built by the front office to retain players and get extensions.
As long as the deal fits the cap sheet and doesn’t hinder the long-term plans, I couldn’t give a flying fuck about saving MLSE millions of dollars.
“Play for the Raptors! Your tax situation is fucked and we’re going to play hardball when you want to get paid!”
– said nobody because Masai and company care about their players and realize it’s an important part of team culture and building
Going to have to disagree entirely with this.
Even if he doesn’t get an offer sheet, that doesn’t mean he has to sign with the Raptors. So after 1 year he’d be unrestricted and the raps would have 0 leverage…
Also I think if it’s a good year, he’d be receiving even higher offers. Might seem like a bit of an overpay but I think in the next couple years it will look like a great contract
We’re stuck in the purgatory of mediocrity. Joke of a management.
IQ contract is good. He’s getting paid like an average starting PG, it’s long-term flat contract. Meaning it’ll only look better with time. It looks ridiculous because NBA contracts have gotten out of hand. Bench players earn 15-20mil now if they play well in a contract year. It used to be Franchise players made that much a few years ago
Seems like all he is saying throughout the whole piece is why extended the people now when you don’t have to. It’s simple to show you trust the player and build a positive relationship moving forward.
Saying Scottie,Cade,Mobley,Franz shouldn’t have been extended because the Pels didn’t extend Zion makes zero sense. Zion didn’t get the full extension because of his injury history and weight problems the other guys don’t have ether of those concerns. Yes teams could have waited but why?
On IQ I just disagree with his assessment. Did he look amazing to end the season? No but he also was playing with G-Leaguer and bench players and still put up 7 assists with less than two turnovers which is extremely impressive for a guy being a lead guard for the first time ever. He still shot the ball 39% in 7 attempts with half of those being off the dribble. You don’t find guards very often than can step up into a larger role so easily while still elite from three.
Of course, there will be no complaints from the crowd that hated masai for letting Fred go “for nothing” and not extending Pascal to increase his value.
IQ would be a great fit on the Pistons or Magic, both of whom had max cap space (and the Pistons took their time with it as well so no problem on an offer sheet) so that is who we were bidding against
He’s the 14th highest paid PG, is there a case he’s the 14th best PG in the league? I’d say he’s in that range. In a year or two he’ll be even lower on that list. I know it’s an insane number, but so are all contracts.
Wasn’t it known Spurs were lurking?
Wasn’t it known Spurs were lurking?
Hollinger writes this months later? Odd dude
There’s a reason Hollinger was a failed executive. Wasn’t he will the team when they have 28 year old 15ppg Mike Conley a max contract?
I know the blurb is about IQ but really my beef is with the argument over Scottie’s extension. It can’t be compared to Maxey because of several factors:
1. Scottie being the 4th pick has a large cap hold
2. The cap space for our team next summer wasn’t going to be signficant and I doubt there would have been a high impact FA available
3. Scottie has already been performing at a max level and while he’s probably not worth the supermax, if he actually gets it, it means the team is in an EXCELLENT place
I do agree with Hollinger that the IQ extension was an overpay but tbh but given where our team is, what good would it have been to try to shave off 5M a year or something from his deal? The Olynyk deal also looks less great given what we saw in the Olympics but if he can give us one good year with 15 mins off the bench, it’s alright.
It’s a flat contract and we have always overpaid. By the end of the contract I doubt it will look very bad compared to what other starting guards are gonna be paid.
100% agree, why are we not letting him test restricted free agency?
The critics of this deal make it seem like he’s a scrub, which is wild. He’s young enough to make it a steal, and even if he doesn’t it’s a pretty easy contract to move if they wanted to go down that path.
This is hilarious.
His 4th year is 15% of the cap – not an overpay at all.
He’s basically *half* the cost of Jaylen Brown.
He’ll earn slightly more than Zingus ($2.5M) and slightly less thatn Jrue ($1.5M)… Those are the 3rd and 4th (maybe 5th) best players on a championship roster.
That’s what rosters cost.
Stop with the sticker shock.
What a bush league take, we can’t get talent here so why not overpay a bit if the potential is there for him to be a steal on the back end
Contract is too high. But whatever.
The Raptors had the money, the contract is structured in such a way that it’s actually beneficial for them after the first two years because they didn’t backload his contract like most teams do so as the cap goes up his contract will look more and more appealing, AND they believe in him…they like the kid and they believe that he can be a top 10 PG in this league with some development and the opportunity.
If they didn’t think that he was that guy they wouldn’t have paid him; people said the same shit about Lowry and Demar when they paid them way back in like 2013 or whenever it was and that turned out pretty well for us
The thing is, we see it in Quickley and we believe in him. This contract will be very good.
I mean I dunno but 35 a year for a mostly unproven guard does seem like a lot of money to me. But what do I know? I’m still not over the Norman Powell trade. I think Masai is cooked in Toronto now TBH. :/
theres nothing wrong with bidding against yourself
Hollinger in general doesn’t like many of the contracts we’ve been giving out lately. I recall when we gave GTJ that 3 year deal, Hollinger was saying “either this is an overpay or this is only a 2 year deal and GTJ will decline the last year”.
I think we’re rightfully defensive over our players, but I understand where he’s coming from. We played hardball with both FVV and OG during their 2nd contracts and then they became even more determined to maximize their bag for their 3rd contract. Personally, I think 32.5MM will probably be an overpay this upcoming year, but will really good for the remainder of the contract
I think a lot of analysts are struggling to understand how the cap is rising and as it does the contracts signed today will be a significantly smaller portion of the cap each year.
It’s actually smarter to give the players what looks like a hefty 5 year deal because of this. as opposed to trying to grind them.
Its a good deal. UFAs don’t sign with the Raps. He has a potential to be Maxey-Lite – lightning quick guard with good size and can shoot the 3. We have nobody else in the pipeline.
Picking up Bruce Brown’s 20m$ option instead of trading him was a bigger waste of money. He won’t even see starter minutes, and is expected to be traded by the deadline this year. To be fair, I can see why teams didn’t want to give up a FRP for him since his advanced stats have cratered.
>The Raptors could have used the strategy of the Sixers (see above) by declining Bruce Brown’s $23 million team option, not paying Olynyk and using Quickley’s low cap hold to enter the market as a significant cap room player. That would have been the one scenario in which an early agreement with Quickley — to be signed after all the cap-space business was done — might have been truly helpful.
Still wondering why they didn’t do this.
As of today the contract we offered him was an overpay. He hasn’t shown all star talent just all star potential.
So much cope in this thread dead💀