Darko Rajaković Said He Stumped His Team With a Surprising Raptors Trivia Question
Toronto Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said he wants Immanuel Quickley leaning into his strengths and taking way more above-the-break three-pointers
Darko Rajaković had a trivia question for his Toronto Raptors team Thursday morning.
Who leads the league in above-the-break three-point shooting?
A few players spoke up with their guesses, Rajaković said. You’d imagine Steph Curry was a guess. Maybe someone said Luka Doncic, Dame Lillard, or Tyrese Haliburton. All of whom would have been very good guesses.
But nobody had the right answer.
The correct answer would be Immanuel Quickley, who is shooting an NBA-best 45.8% on above-the-break threes this season. That’s the highest percentage of anyone with at least 160 attempts this year and since joining Toronto, Quickley is 31-for-62 from above the break.
“He is really one of the best in the league (at) shooting above the break and shooting off the dribble,” Rajaković said. “Educating our whole team (on) what we have on the team and how we can play to our strengths is going to be a big part of what we’re developing.”
Part of that is simply taking more three-pointers, Rajaković said. Toronto wants Quickley taking as many as 10 threes per game and across the board, the Raptors need to get up more threes. The team can’t continue to rank 20th in the NBA in three-point attempts per game and that means getting more corner looks and more above-the-break threes, Rajaković told his team.
“When you think about it, players of Steph Curry and Dame Lillard, how they affect the game with their three-point shooting and deep range, it just opens up so much,” Rajaković said.
For Quickley, that’s going to take some to get used to. He averaged just 5.4 three-pointers per game in New York before being traded to the Raptors and since joining Toronto, that number is only sitting at six attempts per game. He’s yet to get comfortable in Toronto’s offense and he’s passing up too many reasonable looks.
“He’s got to see opportunities,” Rajaković said earlier this week. “I think that the team needs to look for him more as well. … So it’s going to be watching film, it’s understanding where are the spots on the floor.”
The return of Jakob Poeltl should help whenever both he and Quickley do return to the court at some point on Toronto’s upcoming road trip. It’ll give Quickley a more thorough screen setter, allowing Quickley to have enough space to take those pull-up threes he’s become so good at.
When Quickley does start clicking, Toronto’s offense should look a whole lot different. The ability to space the floor both vertically toward midcourt and horizontally in the corners should provide Scottie Barnes with the kind of space Toronto has been missing for far too long.
