Key Highlights:
After a sluggish begin to his rookie 12 months, Gradey Dick has actually picked up the tempo in his final 21 video games – averaging 9.2 PPG on 62.3% true taking pictures
Dick is greater than only a shooter – he’s good at making fast choices and attacking closeouts
Dick has the prospect to become the form of position participant that you just discover on groups contending for championships
As we’ve already mentioned in-depth with younger studs like Chet Holmgren and Brandin Podziemski, this class of rookies is affected by gifted prospects who can be impacting this sport for years to return. However we shouldn’t let the large names make us overlook about under-the-radar guys who is probably not on observe to All-Stardom however nonetheless might be integral components of sturdy groups.
A type of names is Gradey Dick, the participant chosen by the Toronto Raptors with the thirteenth total decide within the 2023 NBA Draft. However what’s it that makes him so promising? What’s it that retains him from being a star? And who’re some present gamers who he might hope to emulate?
The Good
Dick’s NBA profession acquired off to a little bit of a bumpy begin. By means of his 21 video games, the Kansas Jayhawks product averaged 3.4 PPG on 45.2% true taking pictures. Nevertheless, after a journey to the Raptors’ G-League affiliate (the Raptors 905), Dick rediscovered his basketball mojo and returned to the NBA in search of redemption.
Since then, in his final 21 video games, Dick has averaged 9.6 PPG on 62.3% true taking pictures. A giant cause for his turnaround has been the reemergence of his trusty jumper. In his first 21 video games, Dick shot a mere 27.1% from past the arc. In his final 21 video games, Dick has transformed on 42.9% of his triples.
This isn’t the results of some flukey small pattern measurement nonsense. The explanation Dick was so highly-coveted popping out of school was his capacity to stroke from means downtown (40.3% 3-point shooter in faculty). Dick combines his excessive launch angle (he’s 6’8), nice contact (92.0% free throw shooter), and speedy taking pictures launch (see this clip) to be the most effective marksmen within the sport.
These days, the sport has grown too subtle for a participant to only be a taking pictures specialist. Defenses counter these shoot-first gamers by operating them off the 3-point line and forcing the person to beat them off the dribble (aka the fly-by closeout).
What made Dick such an intriguing prospect in faculty was his capacity to not solely shoot but additionally to counter aggressive closeouts with drives to the rim. Early within the season, Dick didn’t translate his collegiate success to the NBA stage (25.5% drives true taking pictures in his first 21 video games, per NBA.com).
However that energy has appeared to return alongside together with his jumper. In Dick’s final 21 video games, his drives true taking pictures is as much as 52.4%. That’s nonetheless under the league common in that play sort. However with rookies, it’s not in regards to the effectivity. It’s in regards to the flashes. And Dick’s flashes have certainly been fascinating.
Dick can’t solely full these closeout assaults with a dribble drive end. He also can keep energy performs by surveying the court docket and hitting the open man (like this).
His consolation in these closeout attacking conditions speaks to a a lot bigger theme of his sport. Dick is probably not the very best on-ball creator (extra on this in a second), however he is aware of tips on how to play with pace and skim the sport shortly. Once you mix this together with his measurement and out of doors taking pictures, he turns into the right position participant to pair with gifted ball handlers/passers like Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley.
The Unhealthy
Offensively, Dick has the right loadout for being a terrific complimentary piece. Sadly, protection is a special story.
As we established, Dick is tall, understands defensive rotations, and he performs with an distinctive motor. Concerning that final level, I’ve as soon as known as him the basketball equal of Crash Bandicoot. However his freneticism continues to be just a little uncontrolled. He’s within the thirtieth percentile in foul charge amongst wing gamers (per Cleansing the Glass).
Generally, committing loads of fouls isn’t a deal-breaker. You possibly can stay with that if the participant is committing these fouls within the title of making an attempt to pressure turnovers. Nevertheless, Dick is just within the 52nd percentile in steal charge amongst wings. This isn’t actually sufficient defensive playmaking to make up for his moments of recklessness.
On high of that, Dick is a poor point-of-attack defender (first clip within the video montage under) who, regardless of his peak, doesn’t present a lot resistance on drives (second clip) or within the submit (third). And though he battles exhausting for defensive rebounds (58th percentile in contested rebounding share, minimal 20 video games performed), he can get outworked on field outs (fourth).
Given his frailer body and under common vertical pop (he hasn’t recorded a single block in 708 minutes this 12 months) and lateral agility, it’s exhausting to think about Dick ever being even a mean defender.
Again to his offense, it’s exhausting to check a big position for Dick than the one he at present has. Dick’s acquired a poor deal with, as evidenced by the truth that solely 10% of his photographs this 12 months have come after three or extra dribbles. This limits the quantity of on-ball creation he could be moderately anticipated to deal with. Plus, since he’s not a lot of a vertical risk, he can’t enhance his position by being a lob finisher or rim curler.
The Backside Line
The explanation Dick has been on my radar these days (man, that was an odd sentence to sort) is that his statistical profile (in accordance with Cerebro Sports activities’ 5-Metric Suite) is fairly much like that of Trey Murphy III’s throughout his inaugural season.
Per @CerebroSports’ 5-Metric Suite:
Gradey DickUSG = 16percentPSP = 483PE = 72FGS =50ATR = 46DSI = 63
Trey Murphy III (rookie 12 months)USG = 15percentPSP = 443PE =72FGS = 52ATR = 51DSI = 67
Clearly, TMIII is a greater bodily athlete, however nonetheless fascinating how related they’re. pic.twitter.com/EPXl1enRuX
— Mat Issa (@matissa15) March 8, 2024
Murphy, like Dick, was chosen in the course of the primary spherical and went largely unrecognized throughout his rookie 12 months earlier than bursting onto the season in his sophomore season. Now, Murphy is without doubt one of the most dear position gamers in basketball.
Dick’s ceiling is decrease than Murphy’s due to the variations of their athletic capacity (Murphy was the runner-up within the 2023 Slam Dunk Contest). However it is vitally doable that Dick’s mix of taking pictures, spacing, closeout attacking, and measurement results in a large leap in 12 months Two.
Due to his defensive shortcomings, Dick is probably going eradicated from becoming a member of the elite position participant tier. However together with his peak, if Dick can keep his defensive depth whereas additionally studying to rein in his fouls, he might nonetheless be a fairly good position participant (much like Simone Fontecchio or Duncan Robinson).
Traditionally, profitable groups home actually good position gamers, and Dick’s potential to be that makes him price maintaining a tally of transferring ahead.
