Gradey Dick is Showing Flashes of Exciting Potential For Raptors

Highlights

• Gradey Dick had a rough start to his NBA career, but has improved significantly over time.
• Dick has started to make an impact on both ends of the floor as his responsibility increases.
• The 20-year-old is developing into a rromising young talent for the Toronto Raptors.

The Toronto Raptors have gone through a massive overhaul this season. Beloved players, Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby parted ways with the team as they ushered in a new era focused around Scottie Barnes as their franchise player.

Among the young talent they have put around Barnes, a key figure was from the 2023 NBA Draft, Gradey Dick. The start of his rookie season wasn’t pretty by any means, as the former Kansas Jayhawk struggled mightily. However, since the turn of the calendar year, Dick has blossomed into one of the standouts from his draft class.

Took time to adjust to the NBA

Dick struggled against better competition

Off the precipice of Fred VanVleet leaving in free agency for nothing, the Raptors were still committed to being a competitive team despite drafting Dick due to his upside compared to other more NBA-ready prospects instead.

The newly appointed head coach, Darko Rajakovic, wanted to implement a play style centered around space and movement within the offense. Although Toronto coveted Dick due to his shooting ability, his jump shot didn’t look good in his first taste of NBA competition.

Dick isn’t a player that needs the ball in his hands to be successful. He’s a player that thrives within the flow of the offense and that was displayed in his sole season at Kansas, in which he averaged 14.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and shot 40 percent from three-point range on a volume of 5.7 attempts per game.

Dick didn’t get substantial NBA minutes until the third game of the season against the Philadelphia 76ers, playing 28 minutes while putting up 16 points on 4-6 shooting from beyond the arc. What seemed like a performance that would be a building block for the season, he instead would struggle heavily.

The 6-foot-8 forward would eventually find himself out of the rotation and sent down to the NBA G-League with the Raptors 905. His performance became even more concerning as he would have one of the worst performances of an NBA assignee, as he shot 1-12 from the field and 0-6 from three-point range, along with three turnovers.

Questions began to circulate surrounding whether the Raptors made the right selection of Dick. After the Raptors hosted a fire-sale of their veteran talent, it opened up more minutes for Dick, and he then began to answer those questions.

Newfound confidence in the calendar year

Dick stepped up when given the opportunity

Once the Raptors traded Siakam to the Indiana Pacers, Toronto became fully invested in the development of their young talent. Dick would see an uptick in his minutes, but it wasn’t just to fulfill an agenda, he started to earn his playing time.

It was clear that his stint with the Raptors G-League affiliate benefited him tremendously. Earlier in the season, opposing players were able to get by Dick easily as he struggled defensively. He would commit defensive fouls 4.6 percent of the times he was defending, which ranked him within the bottom eleventh percentile in the league.

However, his conditioning increased, and it had an impact on his defense along with his offensive ability.

Dick is one of the best at defending along the three-point line, as opposing shooters are -6.8 percent with Dick closing out on them. That puts him in the 98th percentile in the league and the 10th best at guarding along the perimeter.

Toronto was intrigued by the young prospect due to his physical dimensions and how it could result in defensive productivity. It’s impressive to see in a short time how much he’s improved in that area.

Offensively, this is where the rookie has displayed the brightest flashes. He has improved his points per possession from 80.3 before he joined the G-League to an absurd 138.7 in the games he’s played since.

He’s been one of the best three-point shooters in the NBA during this stretch, shooting a ridiculous 58 percent on corner three-point attempts. Toronto’s offense has looked drastically better with Dick in the lineup and there are some key reasons why.

Against the Atlanta Hawks on Feb. 23, Dick finished with 18 points and made some huge plays throughout the win. Here we can see in this play that Kelly Olynyk has the ball in the low post with his eyes up looking to make a pass.

Scottie Barnes goes to set a screen for Bruce Brown, which Brown uses to fade out toward the three-point line. Garrison Matthews, who is guarding Gradey Dick, notices that Jalen Johnson is on the inside of the screen, unable to switch with Bogdan Bogdanović.

Therefore, he stunts toward Brown, eliminating that action for Olynyk. However, Dick waits for the split-second that Matthews takes to look at the ball and cuts to the basket while he’s off-balance for the finish at the rim. That’s excellent off-ball awareness from Dick, which he’s been displaying on a night-in, night-out basis.

Here’s another impressive play by Dick in the following game in a victory against the Indiana Pacers where he scored 18 points again on 4-4 shooting from three-point range. Barnes is bringing up the ball and Dick goes to set a screen in an attempt to get Doug McDermott switched onto Barnes for a favorable matchup.

Obi Toppin doesn’t fully commit to the switch, leading to miscommunication and McDermott late getting back to Dick. Barnes swings the ball to Dick, and now it becomes a two-on-two action involving Olynyk, who sets a screen to give Dick an open shot.

Jalen Smith is aware of the shooter and closes out toward Dick, who threads the needle to Olynyk for the dunk. This entire play sequence was created due to the gravity Dick carries because of his three-point shooting ability. Later in the quarter, the Raptors ran the same action, this time leading to an Olynyk three-pointer.

The version of Gradey Dick from the beginning of the season and the one we’re witnessing now are two completely different players. The Raptors are already looking to use the talented young forward in actions where he is creating for others, which was one of the biggest offensive question marks surrounding his name coming out of college.

Toronto aren’t playoff contenders just yet, but Dick adds to the promising young core that can bloom into one of the NBA’s most exciting teams.