On Gradey Dick’s season, and what the Raptors should hope for next year

After a slow start to his NBA career, Gradey has proven he can be a big part of the Raptors’ future

The Toronto Raptors have already made a bit of a splash this offseason, signing contracts to extend Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley, trading with the Kings for players and picks and drafting two of their own guys. The picture is slowly starting to form of what the team will look like next season, and despite the fact that there’s going to be a lot of new moving parts, one of the biggest things they’ll need to rely on over the next couple years is the internal development of their core.

One of these pieces is undoubtedly Gradey Dick, who, despite having a slow start to the season and coming to the team heralded largely as a shooter, has already shown excellent growth, proving his value as a contributor for the team. As much as the season was rough for the Raptors in general, it ended up providing opportunities for Gradey to wear a lot of different hats on both ends of the floor. He spent time on the bench, coming off the bench, as a shooter and floor spacer, and as a ball handler towards the end of the season.

For the most part, his rookie season was successful. His initial struggles in his transition to the league found him in the G-League for a while under a conditioning program for several weeks that didn’t go as planned, but got him some run that probably helped his cardio and once he got called back up, it was a steady climb from there. At the close of the season when Darko met with the media, he made a quip about Gradey needing to spend the summer working on his body since “he looks 17”. Fast forward to June, he’s already participating in pro-runs in Kansas City, hopefully continuing to build in preparation for his sophomore year.

In his rookie campaign, Gradey averaged 8.5/2.2/1.1 on 42.5% from the field and 36.5% from long distance. While these are respectable numbers, they take into account the rough start. If you consider only the last 15 games of the season, those numbers go to 13.9/2.7/0.9 on 42.7% from the field and 37.8% from beyond the arc. He scored a career-high 24 points with 6 threes against the Nets on April 10 and career-high 7 assists against the Nuggets on March 11. His rebounding career-high was set April 3 against the Wolves when he grabbed 8 boards.

Most of Gradey’s scoring comes on catch & shoot plays, where he averaged 4.1 points on 41% from the field. Of course, this was already expected from him, since his collegiate career already showcased his shooting prowess. Throughout the season he began to dabble in other play types, but often ended up in the middle of the pack. For a rookie, there’s nothing wrong with that though. He averaged 1.14 points per play in transition (52nd percentile), 1.32 points per play in cutting (49th percentile), 1.07 points per play off screens (59th percentile) and 1.07 points per play in spot up shooting (59th percentile). With more time and conditioning, he appeared to trend upwards as the season concluded, so it’s more than likely we’ll see improvement across the board next year.

Where he struggled most was in pick and roll plays as a ball handler, where he fell to the 4th percentile, and in handoffs where he sits in the 6th percentile. Neither of these should be particularly concerning, since his potential, especially in the near future, should be more as an offensive option and less as a facilitator. The Raptors have IQ and Scottie to try and get the offence going and that can remove a lot of the pressure from Gradey whose efficiency tends to be dependent on how long he has possession of the ball.

Last season he averaged 21.5 touches per game and 1.11 dribbles per touch. For comparison, that’s about the same number of dribbles per touch as OG Anunoby and Oshae Brissett, who also aren’t associated with generating offence off the bounce either. For Gradey, the less he handles the ball the better.

When he hasn’t dribbled the ball at all, he shoots 64.3% from 2 and 39.3% from 3. If he has dribbled at least once, those numbers fall to 47.5% and 32.3% respectively. A second dribble sees those numbers fall even further to 42.9% and 16.7%, and when he’s dribbled 3 or more times he’s missed every 3 he’s taken. Of course, this isn’t on a particularly large volume, since 60% of his shots result from him shooting on the catch. His numbers also decline with touch time, as he shoots 37.6% from 3 when he’s had the ball for less than 2 seconds, but only 30% when he’s held the ball for longer than that.

Back in March I asked him about his tendency to get rid of the ball quickly, especially with defensive pressure, even in the open court. Gradey’s response is the perfect example of how he’s been taking his whole first year in the league. He mentioned that “it takes time” and “playing in live situations helps a ton” which is even more evidence of how the extra load on him during the injuries late in the season actually benefited him. He also talked about making the right play every time and finding the open man as often as possible.

In reality, this is the perfect mindset to have. So many players report the change in pace compared to the collegiate game and how much time it takes before the game really slows down and the decision making process is so much easier down the line. With how well Gradey has already adjusted and improved over the course of a year, I have no doubt that he will continue to develop his touch and decision making with more opportunities.

With the offensive system the Raptors are trending towards, this is the perfect place for him. Unselfish basketball and playing with pace and ball movement only works if everyone buys in, and based on his responses and the way he’s played in his first year it looks like he’ll be more than capable of being a core member of the team.

To start the season, Gradey missed the first three shots he took, a disheartening start to his NBA career. In the third game of the season, he shot 4-6 from 3 and had 16 points, the first flash of what he was capable of. This up and down continued. He went 5-26 over the next six games. In the 12th game of the season, Gradey came off the bench for 10 minutes and shot 0-5 from the field. He sat out of some games as a healthy scratch, and regularly posted a negative +/-, but continued to work.

He started to hit more of his shots, and after the stint in the G-League and the string of injuries, he has the opportunity to miss shots and make mistakes without being relegated to the bench.

We started to get used to Gradey draining 3s like this:

And this:

And the more he worked the more he started to add moves with his 3-point shooting:

Even dribble side-step shots that he often would practice in warmups:

And once we all knew how good of a shooter he could be, people started to chase him off the line:

Over and over again:

He started to excel at moving without the ball as well to cut to the rim:

Take contact and still score:

And to finish with force:

The more I see of him, the more impressed I am. While he certainly excels now as a shooter, the development of his game even over the course of a couple months has been impressive and encouraging. As he continues to adjust, it’s totally fair to expect him to develop his passing, defence, and expansion to the variety of shots he takes. Hopefully we’ll see more snippets of him in the offseason to tide us over until the Raptors are back in action for the pre-season.