A signing completed by the Raptors in July 2024 is looming over large over the current offseason, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (YouTube link), who points to the five-year deal Immanuel Quickley signed as a restricted free agent last offseason as a major outlier. That contract had a base value of $162.5MM, with an additional $12.5MM in bonuses. It’s worth $32.5MM per year, with a maximum value of $35MM per year.
“The Immanuel Quickley contract has totally screwed up restricted free agency,” Marks said. “Because that’s where agents are looking at like the benchmark. Certainly, (Bulls guard) Josh Giddey‘s like, ‘I want that contract.’ That number has screwed up a lot of things.”
As Marks goes on to explain, while the agents for extension candidates or current restricted free agents like Giddey will be eager to use the Quickley deal as a point of comparison for their clients, teams around the NBA haven’t been willing to go that high for players with somewhat similar résumés.
“… I don’t think Toronto got enough heat for that number,” Marks continued. “Because Immanuel Quickley is not a $32, $33 million guy.”
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- It has been so long since Jordan Clarkson played meaningful basketball that it’s difficult to predict exactly what he’ll bring to the Knicks in 2025/26, one Western Conference scout tells Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (subscription required). Clarkson remains a talented scorer and one team source believes he’s “exactly what we needed” off the bench, Bondy writes, though a veteran NBA coach notes that the veteran guard comes with some downside too. “High-level shooter. Good going right,” the coach said. “Wild-card-type player. Throw him out there and see if he can get hot. But there’s not much else from a production standpoint. And it’s ugly on defense.”
- Jennifer Rizzotti, the president of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, said on Sunday that a deal to sell the franchise to Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca is “not quite at the finish line yet” and that the Sun will remain in Connecticut for the 2026 season, per ESPN’s Alexa Philippou. While both Rizzotti and Pagliuca (Twitter link) offered statements about the potential transaction, neither one disputed the fact that the plan is to move the team to Boston by 2027. Pagliuca spoke repeatedly in his statement about keeping the franchise “in New England.”
- Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer takes a look at the off-court work Tyrese Maxey is doing in the Philadelphia community, noting that Maxey’s foundation donated $60K this weekend while the Sixers guard hosted a free basketball camp for kids on Saturday.
IQ is a significantly better player than giddy
Giddey and his camp would argue that IQ couldn’t even stay on the court this year. It’s not being said enough how much that contract is holding back the Raptors right now. Seriously, over the first apron to not even make the play in?
On the flipside, the lack of cap space leaguewide is another factor. The incumbent teams can lowball as hard as they want (2 yr/30-40M total with team options and removal of NTC) because they know they’re not bidding against anyone else. And taking the QO is historically a losing proposition for players when they try their hand at UFA, as it’s a tacit recognition that “The team that drafted and developed me didn’t want to pay me this amount, but you guys should.”
To be fair, couldn’t stay on the court on an obviously tanking team isn’t a very high bar to clear. Let’s see what happens in what should be a much more competitive upcoming season.
I always thought that contract was a little overheated, but it also wasn’t the type of contract you’d really regret (barring health). Might he be overpaid by 5-8 million? Sure. But Quickley is also a high-floor player who checks off a lot of boxes (playmaker, shooter, good defender, advanced metrics love him, can play on or off ball) and that sort of versatility has added value in team-building. Lord knows there’s been many far worse contracts handed out over the years.
I must disagree… Giddey is so much better than IQ… not even a convo for me, sorry to say!
All this outside chatter about contracts seems really on the nose if you ask me.
“Screwed up”? How? It’s the offseason, and players are still signing. This happens every single season. “Screwed up” in this tone means “too much money”. But that money would only go back to the team owner, I don’t know why outsiders care so much and criticize deals that are “too much” but celebrate “bargain” contracts… as if they are using their own money? It’s not your money. It’s the team owners. You support the team, not the owner. Someone will always own the franchise, that’s how this league works. Why protect that person’s money? Who cares if megarich guy pays an NBA player money to sit on the sidelines? What does it matter to you?
The issue is the cap and only the cap. If all 30 NBA teams could sign their own players for whatever they wanted and not handicap themselves, then none of this happens. Teams should be rewarded for keeping draftees, not penalized.
Isn’t the issue more that RFAs can no longer leverage the threat of FA like they could before? What are their alternatives? Next offseason it’s going to be the same team, or a discounted deal, or require a Turner-Toronto style surprise from the rafters for the calculus to drastically change. I don’t think any of that has much to do with Quickly’s deal and the agents have nothing else to say.