At the start of the draft, Gradey Dick was covered in sequin, dazzling in bright red, and unbeknownst to he and the Raptors – headed to Toronto. One of the prospects that the Raptors really liked — and one of the few who garnered a second workout, and more face time with the team — had slipped, just a little bit, and it led to conceptual symmetry between his outfit and his new team, a much-coveted follow from Drake, and maybe most importantly: one of the worst shooting teams in the league selecting someone who is considered by many as the best shooter in his draft.
“I think we had Gradey, in kind of his own group.” said Bobby Webster after the Raptors drafted Gradey Dick 13th overall. “I’m sure we’ll see how it all plays out over the next couple years. I think the size, shooting, the I.Q. probably stood out quite a bit. He’s not just a shooter, he knows how to play off the ball. He knows how to make backdoor cuts. He can pass well. He rebounds well. I think he’s more of a well-rounded player even though he’s probably gonna get pegged early as just a shooter.”
As Bobby Webster laid out, albeit in a short, press conference-y manner: Gradey isn’t just a shooter. He is, of course, an elite shooter. One of the best to come out of the college game in the past 5 years. But, he’s an ever-impressive connective playmaker, which is something that the Raptors, and other teams that Gradey worked out with, got to experience first hand while working him through all the drills that test the limits of a players ability to make progressive reads. Attack the top-foot, find the lane, read the help, make the play – he passed with flying colors.
Webster mentioned that workouts shouldn’t be too revealing. That you’d rather see this stuff live in games, and the good news for Gradey and the Raptors? It’s written all over his Kansas tape.
As a shooter that can handle the ball, play defense, that can rebound, that was more of the appeal: that he can do all of the other things too.
Bobby Webster on Gradey Dick
Empty-side pick n’ rolls where his height and shooting gravity can create easy passing lanes to rollers. The baseline drives after back-cutting his man who was cheating into a DHO and the correct reads to the corner, above-the-break, or his teammate crashing into the lane. Skip passes are always easier for taller players with vision. Not a lot of these come as the result of primary initiation, but Gradey & the Raptors have modest expectations for his first bit of time in the league, and that’s for him to succeed as a tertiary player. He has the skillset for it.
It is important to remember though, that Gradey’s secondary skills shine a little bit brighter because of the immense pressure his shooting applies to defenses. In the graphic above you can see elite shot-making from two levels of the court: the mid-range, and 3-point land. One of the concerns about transitioning from college to the NBA, is the length of 3-pointers changing. All shooters have to adjust to this, but it’s nice to know that Gradey hit 36.5% on his NBA distance threes at Kansas across 107 attempts.
He has a high pickup point, high release, simple, quick mechanics. He’s going to shoot over people at the next level when they’re in his face, and he’s going to find open looks because of his superb off-ball movement and shot preparation. He’s a player who coupled extremely aggressive jumpshot tendencies with extreme efficiency – and that’s a tremendous sign. He will hunt his shots, and is reluctant to let the defense take them away. The 53% he shot on pull-up threes is a representation of some slick dribble combos into step-backs, some transition gunning, but a lot of it comes after defenses try to run him off the line and he puts the ball down to find new space to pull from. It’s also fifty three-percent, which is pretty insane.
The escape/pound dribbles into space can come going left or right, they can go sideways, backwards, forwards – Gradey has the requisite touch and balance to hit shots in any form or fashion. If defenses step up too aggressively, we get to see some of that playmaking that I addressed earlier. In regards to his 22% unassisted-rate on threes? That’s a big number. It’s never 1-to-1 comparing college-usage to NBA-usage, but think back for a moment how often it seemed like Gary Trent Jr. was creating his own 3-point looks in 2021-22 – he came in at 24-percent unassisted, only 2-percent higher than Gradey’s Kansas rate. Not 1-to-1, not to suggest that Gradey will provide that rate at the NBA level out of the gate, just to put in mind that 22-percent is a lot.
Maybe most important for a shooter in the NBA today is your reactive movement. Jordan Hawkins is a great example of a fantastic shooter who excelled in winding set actions for Connecticut where the end goal is to find him a sliver of space to get a shot off. Gradey isn’t as slick running around screens as Hawkins, but he’s also a lot better at finding his own usage without being featured. His interplay with other players can always result in an open look. So, this isn’t to say that Gradey will be featured as a shooter repeatedly in intentional sets for him, but rather that any set can become a look for him because he’s so good at finding soft spots on the weak-side, losing defenders when he’s merely a piece of a set action, and when he’s shaking up to support pick n’ rolls and forming up off of his teammates drives.
Gradey is supposed to be an easy fit with virtually any team, but especially on these Raptors he should be able to drag defenders out of the lane who used to previously camp out there to deter Pascal Siakam’s drives, and maybe most importantly into the future: pair with whatever version of Scottie Barnes’ on-ball stylings look like.
“He’s a rookie but you hope he can come off the bench and make some shots. Not make too many mistakes. You hope that coaches trust him, and keep expectations in line. But, we do have expectations that he can probably come in (and make an impact.)” Webster said. “He played on a really good Kansas team with some upperclassmen, who were kind of the leaders of that team. So, to watch him play off of that, I think, gives us a sense that he can come in here and kind of play off the current group.”
Defensively, Dick ranked pretty poorly when he was involved directly in actions at the college level. He had a tough time guarding pick n’ roll ball handlers, and his foot speed was something picked up on by scouts and opposing teams even before his poor cone time at the NBA draft combine. Surrounded by a plethora of talented wing defenders, and with (maybe) one of the better defensive backstops in the NBA, the Raptors should be able to switch Gradey out of difficult actions pretty often and into off-ball situations where he makes great reads in support, and can often become a defensive playmaker.
Teams will hunt him, most rookies go through that, but the Raptors should be able to make teams burn a lot of clock to get to that point, and they should have the infrastructure to protect against the worst scenarios pretty often. This isn’t to say that Gradey is a glowing defensive prospect, and the Raptors potential ability to protect his weaknesses doesn’t make him a better player. But, it does mean they’ll be able to reap the rewards of his great offensive game as he puts on more weight to bang around at the NBA level, and adjusts to the speed of the game. Filling out his frame should also help his rebounding, which was a huge plus at the college level.
“I think he’s a smart positional defender. Obviously, that’s where his I.Q. comes in.” Webster said of Gradey. “He knows where he is, he’d probably even tell you he’s limited to some extent in 1-on-1 with high level athletes, but I think – he played in the Big-12, he’s played against the top kids his entire high school and college career. So, I think he knows how to play against guys who may be bigger or faster.”
There’ll be more to come on Gradey’s game, and expectations are subject to shift based on how the Raptors pursuit in free agency goes, and how Gradey’s Summer League looks. As Bobby Webster mentioned though, the Raptors haven’t been picking in the lottery very often over the past decade, and it’s cool to get excited about the higher end prospects – which Gradey is.
He’s a pretty big character, and that comes through when you meet him.
Bobby Webster
The day you’re reading this? Probably the same day as Gradey’s introductory press conference. So, I’m off to learn some more about him.
Have a blessed day.
