Immanuel Quickley has quickly become a presence for the Raptors

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What seemed like a pointless exercise as the Raptors essentially played out a lost and entirely regrettable season suddenly discovered a redeeming quality.

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The Raptors will be in the City of Roses on Saturday night to face the Portland Trail Blazers.

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The proverb that goes along the lines of “Every rose has its thorn” aptly describes both the Blazers and the Raptors.

Portland, which opened a six-game homestand by losing 128-120 to OKC, was scheduled to host Houston on Friday night, while the Raptors began their four-game road trip Thursday night by battling at Phoenix after being torched early by the Suns.

Moral victories have become the name of the game for the Raptors and Blazers, teams that are joined at the hip when it comes to losing games and players lost to injury.

After being eliminated by the Pelicans in what would be the worst home loss in franchise history, at least the Raptors didn’t suffer the same fate in the Valley of the Sun. But a defeat was nevertheless produced, Toronto’s fourth in its last five games.

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For the Blazers, they found some solace in losing close games to two of the West’s best, the T’Wolves and Thunder.

“You look at it as a quote-unquote win, in the sense of being able to compete with them and stay close,” said Blazers guard Anfernee Simons, who scored a combined 63 points against OKC and Minny after scoring 30 in a match. Portland wins against the Memphis Grizzlies.

“Obviously, as a competitor, you are: “No, forget it, I want to win.” As a team, I thought we played well enough to win the game.

Good, but not good enough.

The Raptors are not good and are struggling to win a game with Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl both sidelined with hand injuries.

Barnes is Toronto’s best, most valuable and most indispensable player. In a different way, Poeltl isn’t far behind – despite his lack of foot speed when trying to defend the perimeter, which often leads to compromising the paint.

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The fact remains that the Raptors are 2-11 without Poeltl, who first injured his ankle on a trip to the West Coast when the team whipped the Warriors.

Without Barnes, the Raptors are 1-2, with the only win coming against the lowly Charlotte Hornets, who led late in Toronto.

Toronto has fielded units with names that even the most hardcore hoops fans wouldn’t immediately recognize. Ditto for the Blazers, who distributed minutes to Duop Retah, Rayan Rupert and Ashton Hagans.

Heading into Friday night’s game against the visiting Rockets, Portland was 17-44. Heading into Saturday’s meeting, the Raptors sit at 23-40.

The numbers can be analyzed and interpreted to fit any narrative, but what has emerged recently with the Raptors has been the play of Immanuel Quickley.

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Take, for example, its last five games before Toronto’s meeting at the Moda Center. During that stretch, Quickley had 56 assists while turning the ball over a total of just 10 times.

Some of the players around him, for the most part, should not be in the NBA or, at best, require more refinement to be considered NBA ready.

The Raptors got lucky when Kyle Lowry’s trade to the Big Apple was declined by Knicks ownership. Then they found a gem in Fred VanVleet.

When VanVleet left for nothing in free agency, the Raptors figured Dennis Schroder could serve as a capable point guard, even though many thought the veteran was better served in a backup role.

When the trade to land Quickley and RJ Barrett was made with New York, Quickley quickly became the floor general.

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As currently constructed, there is no true replacement for Quickley on the roster, a point of weakness that the Raptors will not be able to address, in all likelihood, until the offseason. At least the Raptors found a legitimate starter in Quickley.

All it takes is for the Raptors to extend Quickley, a restricted free agent who many in basketball believe will be a fixture in Toronto for the foreseeable future.

He’s faster than VanVleet, has more range on his jump shot than Lowry, can attack off the dribble or go up in transition. He has demonstrated the ability to protect the basketball, an area of ​​Quickley’s game that can only improve once a deeper, more capable roster is assembled.

Barnes hasn’t shown he can be an effective shooter from distance and perhaps he’ll never develop into that consistent presence beyond the arc. As such, the mandate of Raptors management is to find shooters and allow players such as Quickley and Barnes to fully flourish.

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As of now, the Raptors are very limited and have shown no signs that anything will change, despite the team’s play improving in the second half against the Suns.

Speaking of which, a Grayson Allen type player would look awfully good playing on a team featuring Quickley and Barnes as its two primary offensive options.

Allen isn’t one to create his own shot, but he doesn’t have to on a Durant-led team.

Offensively speaking, Durant is as unique a player as the NBA has seen.

No one is suggesting that Quickley is the second coming of KD – because he isn’t and won’t be – but at the same time, he can be a presence, the type of point guard the Raptors will need moving forward and whose presence will only expand. .

For that to happen, the roster needs to be better.

At least Quickley provided some comfort in these times of misery.

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