Gradey Dick has been showing off the new aspects of his game all preseason. From deeper 3-pointers to cutting alongside his teammates, he’s been fantastic. Samson Folk dives deep on how he’s doing it and what it means for the Toronto Raptors.
While I have you here, and to be topical: the last time the Raptors played the Cavaliers, Dick scored 14 points on 8 shots off the bench. Oddly enough, if you believe synergy sports data, Dick didn’t run a single on-ball action that game – which is in stark contrast with the preseason where so much of what Dick did was on-ball. So, he has never run an on-ball action vs. the Cavs in his career (he missed the other 2 games last season). I wonder what his first on-ball play will be. Hmm, much to consider.
Keeping Dick off-ball vs. the Cavaliers made a lot of sense then, and now, because the smaller guards are capable of bothering his dribble and even more importantly, his distance shooting is extremely important to provide spacing against the massive interior defense of the Cavaliers. The Raptors were very specific in where he played during set actions, and used him quite a bit as a screener. He was also fairly useful in a tight spot out of BLOB’s – as was the case for most of the second half of the season, where a good deal of the Raptors short clock BLOB’s sent him sprinting into the corner to catch and fire.
It should be pretty interesting to see how the Raptors utilize Dick considering the inherent strengths of keeping his role the same for this game, but also acknowledging that he’s trying to take a significant step in his role and career this upcoming season.
Here is the video essay where the commentary is overlapped with the relevant plays:
Regardless, hope you enjoy the video, and enjoy the game later tonight!
