The Knicks have a special talent with Immanuel Quickley, but what will it take to convert his potential into potency?

Last season we witnessed leaps signaling potential stardom from multiple young guards across the league, with names like Jordan Poole, Tyrese Maxey, Desmond Bane, and Anfernee Simons headlining the pack. The former late first-round picks all established themselves as nuclear offensive forces, bringing highly-coveted dimensions — volume shot creation and shooting — to their respective teams. Naturally, their arrivals have triggered league-wide speculation over who could be the next dynamic young guard to take “The Leap.” Amongst all the intriguing candidates, the case for Immanuel Quickley, another late first-round pick, sticks out. With a skillset resembling some of the game’s biggest stars, there is good reason to believe that his breakout is on the horizon.

Quickley’s sophomore campaign was a tale of two seasons in terms of opportunity and production. The abrupt end to Kemba Walker’s homecoming during the All-Star break left ample ball-handling duties for IQ to flourish with. Given increased offensive responsibility and a slight uptick in minutes, as well as some positive jump shooting regression, his stats ballooned across the board. The result was IQ gifting Knicks fans a glimpse into what can we can expect from the energetic young guard in the future.

Let’s dive into what exactly made him such a force, where he can continue to improve, and what his prospects for stardom really are.

The Foundation: IQ’s dominant traits

Like nearly every offensive star before they break out, Quickley possesses a few dominant traits which make it easy to visualize his latent upside. 

Pull-up shooting

As a young 23-year-old, IQ already boasts one of the most potent pull-up jumpers in the game. 

Nearly 46% of his shot attempts last season were off-the-dribble jumpers, mostly coming from behind the 3-point line. The frequency with which he took these shots landed him in the 92nd percentile of all players, while his efficiency on these shots ranked in the 80th percentile. The numbers sketch a rough, interesting outline, but it takes a dive into the footage to paint a perfect portrait of Quickley’s pull-up prowess.

With a low release and an asymmetrical base that naturally propels his center of gravity both over his toes and upward through the ball, Quickley’s jump shot is constructed to generate maximum power, enabling him to pull from several feet beyond the arc with ease. Despite standing at 6-foot-3 and launching from just right of his nose, getting his shot off isn’t much of an issue due to a blistering one-motion release. He can also rise up off of messy footwork and a collection of movement patterns while keeping his mechanics consistent. His body bends and twists like a pool noodle, allowing him to ‘‘self-organize’’ on the fly — put simply, he can ‘‘find’’ good mechanics on the fly regardless of prior momentum (i.e. dribbling, side-stepping, sprinting, moving backwards, etc.).

We’ve seen him do it in games, but this angle from a practice video really shows how ridiculous it is to be able to find your good mechanics from a messy base from NBA range:

That is a rare gift, even in the NBA.

IQ’s deep range, rapid release, speedy ball-pickup, and staggering lower-body flexibility make for a pull-up shooter who shocks defenses not just by putting the ball in the basket, but also using the threat of that jumper in the pick-and-roll. He can float forward mid-air as he shoots, so doing so while zipping off a ball screen is easy. IQ doesn’t need to decelerate before pulling up for a shot, instead baking his momentum into the natural forward lean of his mechanics. Lethal downhill shooting in the pick-and-roll is the tip of the spear for his 80th percentile scoring efficiency in such possessions.

Quickley also has counters to shoot over longer defenders with a deep bag of sidesteps, step-backs, and other footwork patterns, due to his aforementioned balance, flexibility, and comfort with messy shot prep. By being a high-end, versatile pull-up shooter, defenses have to commit to him and his screener early and without hesitation. That respect and urgency often leads to early defensive breakdowns, a hallmark of major offensive perimeter threats and something no other Knick causes. 

Midrange scoring

The second big-time skill he has is his floater, especially when combined with the threat of the pull-up jumper. 

When IQ opts for a drive instead of a pull-up three, his touch and volume from floater range jump off the tape. Almost a quarter of his shot attempts last season were runners — a frequency that landed him in the 98th percentile of all players. He converted 45.1% of such attempts, a mark that landed him in the 72nd percentile for efficiency across the league.

Quickley’s floater pulverizes defenses all the way out to the free throw line. They find the bottom of the net with a soft touch that gracefully eludes the best rim protectors the game has to offer. He possesses a collection of modified floater releases to draw from depending on the state of the defense and the direction of his attack. Not only is it a shot IQ can get to on virtually any possession, but much like his pull-up shooting, the threat of his floater coerces rim protectors to stray away from the basket, unlocking the highest-value shots for teammates. Critically, where rookie IQ over-relied on his floater (defenses knew it was coming if he dribbled inside the arc), Sophomore IQ deployed it more judiciously — though still frequently. As we will discuss later, the threat of IQ’s new-and-improved passing and rim finishing made it so defenses couldn’t simply sit on the floater. 

Movement, creating separation, and getting to his spots 

The third of Quickley’s dominant traits is his uncanny ability to get past and separate from defenders. With extraordinary quickness, flexibility, change-of-speed, and a creative handle, he simply moves different. 

People don’t think of IQ as an above-average athlete. Yet if you watch him stop, start, change direction and leave defenders in the dust, it becomes clear that he’s physically gifted. 

Quickness and flexibility allow him to beat defenders to open spots. As I alluded to earlier, Quickley’s body bends and twists like a pool noodle—he can contort his lower body and torso, and propel himself in any direction in the blink of an eye. 

The clip above demonstrates IQ’s astonishing flexibility, particularly in his ankles, a hallmark of players with quick first steps. Don’t believe me? Check out the GOAT as he gets low:

During the possession from the IQ video above, Quickley gets low — look at where his shins are compared to the ground. Notice his ankles as they generate oodles of power. As a reminder: the lower the shin angle, the more downhill momentum is created. Think of a sprinter at the starting blocks:

The difference is, as an NBA player, you don’t have a sprinter block to push off and make your shins perpendicular to the ground. You need to use your own hip and ankle flexibility to create that position.

Quickley was able to dust two defenders in a semi-circle-shaped trip and travel from a standstill at hardly past center court to the elbow in just three dribbles. That’s not normal, even for NBA guys. His blow-by burst isn’t confined to straight lines, but rather can be maintained and swelled through shifts in direction, making good defense an onerous task. With a bursty straight line driver, you can guess the direction, and if you’re right, you succeed. With a player who has burst and can drive using curved paths, not to mention stop and start on a moment’s notice, staying with the ball handler becomes a series of guesses rather than just one.

Honorable mention: ball handling

The honorable mention of his star foundation is his handle, which has gone from good to great even if it remains sub-elite. IQ excels at using rapid dribbles across a wide area in order to shift defenders and initially create space to toy with, whether it be to attack downhill or shoot from the perimeter. His 6-foot-8 wingspan works in tandem with his combo moves, flexibility, quickness, and unpredictability to make him a difficult cover 1-on-1. His go-to wide cross gets far outside defenders’ bodies, and when he pulls it off it’s difficult for defenders to catch up.

Another element of his handle is IQ’s knack for going above and beyond to sell his moves, which enhances his ability to hastily separate from defenders. In the clip above you see a favorite of his, where he faces one way and motions for a screen before zipping by his man in the opposite direction using a wide cross. His deception is present in all his moves, as he is just as likely to slow down and size up a defender as he is to mix in sudden jerks in movement with his dribbles. When he begins the combos, he makes use of convincing hesitation moves, shrewdly varies stride length, and frequently uses deceptive tactics to catch defenders off-guard.

When defenders are able to stick with him through his preliminary moves, Quickley has plenty of counters to fall back on. He’s comfortable breaking down his man, has a Ph.D. in changing pace, and the scope of his springy, decelerating, step-back makes sticking with him an onerous task. Consequently, IQ has become elite at self-generating paint touches (even if he doesn’t always get to the rim). Creating drives that demand help are the easiest method of getting defenses in rotation, and him learning to do this in his second year altered his ceiling completely. Reliable advantage creators are scarce, but Quickley’s ability to consistently leave defenders in the dust suggests that he has the potential to become exactly that.

Next steps: Filling in the rest

Despite a bevy of special skills and biomechanical tools, the rest of his game must reach a certain level of proficiency before Quickley can complete an ascension to stardom. Let’s dig in.

Driving

Obtaining easy points from the rim and free throw line are the next necessary improvements. To his credit, encouraging strides in these areas have already been made. There were two prominent factors in his surge post-All-Star break that reflect this. First, the percentage of shots IQ was fouled on jumped from the 54th percentile to the 99th percentile of “combo guards” per Cleaning the Glass. Second, his efficiency at the rim climbed from the 33rd percentile to the 83rd percentile. His volume of attempts at the rim also experienced a small boost, but his rim attempts still ranked in just the 18th percentile after the All-Star break.

Over the course of the season, IQ grew more patient as a driver, comfortable taking extra dribbles to get deeper into the paint. He’d even rev through contact at times before finishing with an extension layup or confidently drawn foul:

Even with these advancements, Quickley has a long way to go. Although he has cut down on them, there are still too many possessions in which he’ll wither away a promising drive by prematurely killing his dribble without a plan. 

This results in comically difficult shot attempts and retrograding passes. Adding core strength would go a long way for him, as many of his early pickups are a result of contact to his body hurling him off of his driving line or discomfort from nail resistance. A higher level of stability would also allow him to remain balanced deep in the paint — permitting the use of his craft and counters to create and exploit additional finishing angles via “slow finishes,” a must for below-the-rim guards (Jalen Brunson says hello).

Additionally, the Knicks’ abysmal spacing this season didn't exactly facilitate deep paint touches. Lineups with two non-spacers clogging the lanes were a common occurrence for the team, and in many instances there was simply nowhere for IQ to go given he isn’t yet equipped to finish through bigs at the rim. In a better-spaced context, a natural uptick in downhill aggression can be expected from him. We can only hope that the Knicks get a little more shooting out of their power forward spot this season, regardless of who ends up getting the lion’s share of those minutes.

Passing

Whether because of improved spacing, improved handle, or improved strength, there will be massive benefits to better drives by IQ. In addition to higher quality scoring chances, deeper drives force extended rotations to be made by defenders. Drawing harder commitments by the defense means better chances for teammates. Quickley’s passing acumen already makes him a strong playmaker for others, and this impact should continue to blossom as he creates more significant advantages. We saw a similar developmental trajectory from 2021-22 breakout star Darius Garland, who was able to really leverage his creativity passing more than ever this season thanks to more and deeper drives for the first time in his career.

Even without deep drives, IQ is pretty comfortable making a variety of reads in different situations. He thrives at reading and reacting to the actions of multiple layers of defense to diagnose where the advantage lies. He uses a lengthy wingspan for effective jump-passes. He’s shown shrewd instincts for hucking lobs into open space. He knows where his teammates are, and often uses his contortion ability for kick-outs. Quickley can creatively pass over, around, and under the defense, which is important when you’re a 6-foot-3 guard. 

Given his ability to read defenders, what comes next for Quickley as a distributor is becoming a proactive creator. The ability to find holes — opportunities, really — in the defense once they’ve opened up is a valuable trait, but smart defenses ensure those found opportunities are minimally damaging. Think of IQ ‘‘finding’’ an ‘’open’’ early season Obi Toppin in the corner. Is that a hole, or did the defense just concede that opportunity to shut down better ones? As a result, the league’s best passers work to move defenders and whole teams via manipulation, creating not just any opportunity to score but instead truly scrambling a defense and leaving them unable to choose who is open. At this moment, IQ has not yet displayed much use of his eyes, movement patterns, and ball fakes as manipulation tactics, but if his third year playmaking growth is anything like his second year growth, we might see those skills quite soon.

Here is an example of the difference between reading openings, and dictating them: in every one of the clips above, after creating an advantage, Quickley is forced to read a help defender splitting the difference between two teammates. Instead of forcing them to shift or commit to one option to open up a great opportunity for the other teammate, he simply chooses between one of two options without tricking the defender, letting the uncommitted defender recover more easily. Taking the next step to begin dictating help defenders’ actions will do wonders for Quickley in terms of creating easy chances for others.

However, with his masterful court-mapping on both ends of the floor, this sort of improvement can reasonably be expected from IQ in the future. We’ve seen the flashes before: watch how he moves LaMelo with his eyes below!

Off-ball prowess

When the ball isn’t in his hands, Quickley still finds ways to add offensive value. As his teammates improve with the ball in their hands (paging RJ Barrett and Julius Randle), assuming he gets to actually play with them (paging Coach Thibs), IQ’s value will only increase. His shooting prowess translates off-the-catch and off movement, which becomes extra lethal given his savvy relocation instincts. Defenders have to stick with him as he moves around without the ball. The combo of his savvy off-ball instincts and his blazing first step is very apparent when he attacks off-the-catch as well, leading to easy advantages being created. He also isn’t hesitant to make quick passes and keep the ball moving. “Off-ball IQ” is a stark contrast with “lead guard mismatch hunter IQ,” who specializes in 4-5 dribble moves and takes his time doing so. Guards who can shift between both modes are rare and valuable. How many guards with on-ball chops can add value in all the ways IQ does in the video below?

Defense

The other side of the ball is far more of a work in progress for Quickley. While there are evident strengths, reflected in many advanced metrics (D-RPM, D-LEBRON, D-EPM, on-off; take your pick) his modest height and slight frame create questions surrounding the versatility of his defense. No matter how gifted they are, it is tough for a 6-foot-3 guard to defend a big wing or a power forward. The questions moving forward for Quickley revolve around how he can bolster the other elements of his defense unrelated to versatility, and how well he can mitigate the impact of teams trying to take advantage of his size.

Flaunting a 6-foot-8 wingspan along with quick hands, Quickley often flashes impressive disruption. However, the actual frequency at which he created events on defense last season was fairly underwhelming. His 1.5% steal percentage can be described as pedestrian at best, and his 1.9 deflections per 75 possessions placed him in just the 44th percentile of players. While IQ is a strong positional defender both on-ball and especially off-ball, extracting more impact by causing events is vital for IQ’s outlook on defense. Since he’ll never be a switchable defender, more event creation can be what takes his defense from solid to even more positive.

Quickley also struggles when tasked with getting around or over ball screens. While he can slither past poor screens to stay attached, screens that make real contact usually pulverize IQ. With his length and quick movement skills, his recovery ability after getting hit is adequate, but it’s often too little too late after the screen initially vaporizes him. Lacking the strength to absorb and power through heavy-contact screens is far from ideal for someone who needs to defend guards, given that he also doesn’t have the strength to contain larger players. He offers little resistance to stronger guards and wings who can attack his chest for easy offense — continuing to hit the weights will be important for IQ moving forward.

Even with good lateral movement skills, the variety of players IQ can successfully guard is quite narrow. Big guards and wings with any sort of size advantage or potency coming off of screens provide a challenge for Quickley. He puts forth great effort and makes few mistakes, but his size limits his upside as a defender. Still, he’s far from a liability on that end, and that’s a real edge he has over most other scoring guards. The bulk of his defensive improvement will likely come from the weight room to seal up his strength-related issues. With a certain level of added strength, IQ could very well be a solid, versatile, defender in due time although the realistic amount of strength he should add for the sake of his offense may not permit this. While the majority of his value is almost always going to come from offense, the fact that we are discussing realistic pathways for IQ to go from OK to good as a 6-foot-3 guard puts him in rare company among young guards with upside.

The video below begins with some of his good instinctual play on defense, and ends showing where he can improve dealing with screens and bigger players.

The outlook

He still has a ways to go, but Immanuel Quickley is destined for success. His prized strengths warrant a heavy investment from the Knicks front office. If they decide not to, another team will inevitably reap the benefits when he moves on during his second contract.

Few players can pierce the initial line of defense like IQ can, and the additional presence of elite floater game and pull-up shooting mixed with burgeoning passing make him a budding creator. Like other recent breakout guards, Quickley’s ability to shift between playing with and without the ball adds a compelling dimension that lets him play alongside other creators. Mixing in possessions running secondary actions to complement star teammates with stretches of possessions as the primary ball handler is something Jordan Poole did next to Stephen Curry to keep the Warriors offense afloat against Boston’s terrorizing defense in the finals. Due to his shooting mastery, sophomore scoring sniper Desmond Bane acted as a moving magnet to draw defenders away from Ja Morant’s attacks. With the Mavericks last season, Jalen Brunson acted as a release valve off of Luka Doncic’s drives by finishing plays himself or puncturing the defense even further through additional drives and kicks. IQ has the malleable skillset to be impactful in all these different ways—and more, given his playmaking. This makes him a truly versatile offensive building block. On top of that, he won’t sink a defense and has reachable strength-based upside on that end too. In the near future, with some fine-tuning to his game, Immanuel Quickley could become the next box-office attraction in MSG.