The Raptors’ two-point guard lineups have been game changing
TORONTO – It all happened so fast.
Immanuel Quickley burst forward, stopped and popped a pull-up 2, atypical to his usual shot diet. He snagged a long rebound and shot ahead on the break, past a flat-footed Tyrese Procter and to the rim for an open layup. Suddenly, a second point guard, Jamal Shead, sprints up the floor in transition, spinning into the paint and making a rotating jump pass to Sandro Mamukelashvili drifting from the dunker spot for another easy bucket. Less than 30 seconds later, Shead’s only hesitation is his dribble as he bolts past miscommunicating defenders to the cup.
Quickley and Shead first shared the floor for the final three minutes and 23 seconds of the second quarter in the Toronto Raptors’ win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday.
Their combined impact was immediate. A 13-4 run that vaulted the Raptors into the lead and helped increase the duo’s net rating over Toronto’s now eight-game winning streak to 44.8, the best mark among two-man groupings on the team (excluding only the most miniscule samples). Prior to the point guards checking in the Raptors’ second-ranked halfcourt offence looked uncharacteristically lethargic, lacking pace on actions and often stalling into late-clock isolations.
There was a stark contrast in the speed of the Raptors’ play before and after Shead joined Quickley in the backcourt. Cleveland had also held the lead for 11 minutes before Toronto’s guards united.
“I think it’s very important,” said Darko Rajaković when I asked him about the benefits of two-point guard lineups after the game. “I think both of them, they do (a) really good job also keeping us running in transition and finding those outlet passes. It gets us organized.
“Obviously, both of them are really good 3-point shooters as well, so that’s creating extra space for us.”
League wide, four of the top eight lineups in point differential include two lead guards, including players that are classified as either point guard or combo guard by Cleaning the Glass. There seems to be strong evidence for playing two-point guard lineups. (Or even three?)
The Raptors’ league-best transition frequency gets even better with both guards on the court. And since they both take care of the ball, the team’s turnover rate with the pair on the floor is among the best in the league – in the 100th percentile.
Even more, Shead and Quickley don’t just ping accurate hit-ahead passes and limit turnovers; they make the right play. Rajaković’s 0.5-offence is predicated on decision making. Having more players on the floor who are proficient at organizing the correct sequences that unlock easy buckets can go a long way.
“It’s pretty easy,” said Shead. “I think instead of focusing on just being point guards, I think we just focus on being basketball players. We both try to make the right pass. We both try to just make the right play.”
And while Quickley is decidedly the Raptors’ best 3-point shooter, Shead needs more volume, both game-to-game and over his NBA career, before we can have a referendum on him as a shooter. Still, his 41.9 percent from 3 this season is better than any Raptors starter, including Quickley, along with wings Gradey Dick and Ochai Agbaji.
Right as the Cavaliers began to mount a comeback midway through the fourth, Shead entered alongside Quickley again for more pivotal minutes. They’re quieter than the first stretch, but still effective. Quickley bats an errant Donovan Mitchell pass for a steal, and Barnes finishes in transition.
Mitchell shakes loose – off Spain Leak and on a pick n’ pop – to drill a couple 3s. But Shead locks him down before it gets out of hand, fighting over a screen to nullify a shot attempt. Later he stops the ball on the break, forcing another contested miss from Mitchell. The First Team All-NBA guard finishes with 17 points on 6-of-20 from the field, by far his least efficient game of the season. Quickley and Shead move the ball along quick and space. They win the final six minutes by five points and win the game.
The Raptors went plus-14 overall in the nine minutes they had both their point guards on the floor on Monday, and lineups with Quickley and Shead have now outscored opponents by 37 in 43 minutes during the winning streak. They’ve also seen more time together, playing in each of the last eight games and averaging 5.3 minutes, compared to only 1.4 over the first ten games of the season.
Raptors fans know two-point guard lineups well. Jose Calderon and TJ Ford. Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet. A lot of strong emotions – both fond nostalgia and sweet success – are tied in with those pairings. After Lowry left following the 2020-21 season, the Raptors didn’t have a viable option to play as a second point guard. After VanVleet left two years ago, they’ve rarely had one.
And that isn’t discounting Quickley. His strengths are loud. He single-handily buoys the Raptors’ pull-up 3-point shooting and all-around his aggressiveness hunting 3s and canning them has been vital to the Raptors’ hot streak.
“It spreads the floor a little bit more, you know,” said Brandon Ingram about the team closing its last two wins with dual point guards. “Especially for Quickley, he’s able to be at his normal position scoring the basketball, getting into the lane, still seeing passes but he’s able to be more of a scorer than facilitator when Jamal is out there.
“And I think it’s a good thing to have. When you have two point guards on the floor that can see different things on the floor that everybody else can’t see, it makes the game easier.”
Of course, Ingram was the story of the game. His shot-making bailed the Raptors out early to keep the game within reach. Ultimately, he scored 37 points in the signature game of his Raptors career thus far – Ingram’s most in a game since he scored 41 against the Raptors on Feb. 5, 2024 – including a tough step-back 3 with the shot clock winding down to help seal the game.
Highly skilled players like Ingram do that.
And even though Ingram is the most skilled Raptor, point guard is the skill position. They’re expected to work with a live dribble, see the floor, execute difficult passes and in today’s NBA, almost always have to shoot. For a Raptors team that has been devoid of dribble creation and rim-pressure in recent seasons, having players that, while imperfect, can provide elements of point-guard play, is like rain in a drought. Two rainfalls are better than one.
It also allows Quickley to both defend away from the point of attack on defence and work off ball more on offence, giving him more opportunity to stalk around the perimeter and find openings to spot up or run off screens for quality looks.
“I think it brings us really good balance of defence,” said Rajaković before the game. “It allows Immanuel to be off the ball as well. He’s really good coming off some pin downs and also spacing the floor. I think they’re complimenting each other really well because they’re really good competitors, both of them.”
We’ve seen that action for Quickley be particularly effective with the Raptors rip-screen pin-down sideline-out-of-bounds play.
Good point-guard play is paramount to success in the NBA’s current environment. Size is sacrificed in running out two of them at once, but with all the jumbo wings the Raptors have at their disposal, they can afford it.
Especially when the speed, skill and backcourt balance Shead and Quickley provide can turn the tides of a game in an instant.
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