The Toronto Raptors are officially in a new era.
When the team traded both O.G. Anunoby and Pascal Siakam in less than a month they made it clear that they are now focused on a rebuild and developing their young talent.
Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett are two players who came on over to the Raptors in the Anunoby deal.
Both of them are now part of the Raptors young core alongside Scottie Barnes.
Quickley and Barrett have been great additions for the Raptors thus far.
Both of them made their return to New York on Jan. 20. Barrett finished the game with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.
Meanwhile, Quickley had 12 points and 11 assists against his former team. Despite their efforts the Raptors got overpowered by the Knicks 126-100.
It’s going to take time for things to come together for the Raptors who are now in a youth movement.
After the game Quickley spoke about building chemistry with his new teammates via Kristian Winfield:
“It’s like meeting a new girl. You got to take the time to get to know her. You got to take her out to eat, stuff like that. You ain’t gonna just walk up to her and say, let’s get married.’”
Quickley keeps it real
It was a funny response from Quickley, but it holds a lot of truth. It’s going to take time for this Raptors team to gel.
The Raptors have gone through a lot of changes over the last couple of weeks and Masai Ujiri knows this next chapter isn’t going to be an overnight success.
This new Raptors direction is all about building the team back up the right way. Quickley along with Barrett and Barnes are going to be a big part of Toronto’s future moving forward.
There will be a lot of ups and downs as illustrated in Toronto’s most recent loss against the Knicks. However, the Raptors foundation is now set.
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