By now everyone has heard the fun anecdote of Gradey Dick taking over Ochai Agbaji’s dorm in Kansas, where he found a card left by Agbaji providing advice to whoever came after him. We know they workout together as well. They are, as far as draft position goes, the big stars of the Kansas Jayhawks program over the past 7 years until you wind up at Josh Jackson drafted at 4th overall in 2017. Go back a full decade and you get Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid. The off court connection is a well tread story, and deservedly so.
However, the on-court connection between Dick & Agbaji flourished, more than it ever has, last night. Not to be too on the nose, but the first basket of the game was literally a pass from Agbaji to Dick for a 3-pointer to get the Raptors on the board. What followed was 22 more points for Dick as he ascended to his career-high while displaying a tantalizing level of shot-making, and quietly beside him, Agbaji scored more than 15 points for the first time in 2024 – finishing at 19 points, his highest amount as a Raptor. Some synergy between the lads who are, more than likely, in competition for a starting position.
Dick has the inside track on the starting shooting guard spot without a doubt, but Agbaji has been good enough at cutting & filling on offense that it might make you want to place him in the starting lineup for defensive purposes depending on the matchup. Without RJ Barrett or Immanuel Quickley available though, there’s been no cause to break up the Kansas-led, middle of the Raptors lineup.
It’s also interesting to think about how these two succeed, because it seems almost like polar opposite situations. Agbaji is ramping up his production and impact by simplifying everything. He has supercharged his transition numbers by running non-stop. Last year 18-percent of his possessions came in transition. Through three games this season he has launched that up to nearly 40-percent. 72-percent of all of his attempted shots have been layups or dunks. That won’t exactly stick, but it’s a great indicator of how he’s finding his way onto the scoreboard without much in the way of halfcourt scoring. Agbaji is finding success by gorging on the low hanging fruit on offense, while taking the tougher matchups on defense.
When it comes to Dick, he is a giraffe who only craves the high hanging foliage. There isn’t necessarily a stat for this, but my eye test tells me that it isn’t Scottie Barnes who has the hardest shot diet on the team, but rather that it’s Dick.
Dick isn’t a blur, but he’s in constant motion. Supporting actions as a spacer, then a cutter, then a relocator, then flashing middle, then running off a flare – it’s a lot. Most of the Raptors shooting is out injured right now and that has put a premium on everything that Dick is able to provide. Luckily for the Raptors, their sophomore is up to the task both in talent and in will. The Raptors are flinging him towards the ball, away from the ball, into the teeth of the defense – and asking him to make shots. All of this and he’s 2nd on the Raptors in points per game at 16.3, and he’s outpacing Barnes significantly in true-shooting percentage (59% v 53%)
There is a clear directive for Dick: shoot. There are burgeoning aspects of Dick’s game that lend themselves to playmaking, just the other day Darko Rajakovic told me that he thinks Dick is a very underrated passer. However, there just isn’t time for that right now. It’s time to get shots up. During the preseason there was a reason I didn’t really care that Dick was underperforming his percentages because:
- If you think a guy is a shooter, you have to trust it.
- There are many, many players in the NBA that can’t ratchet up their shot volume comfortably because of how limited they are. They need comfy catch & shoot opportunities to find them, and they can’t be run off the line.
Dick can ratchet it up, man. He will launch the damn ball at the rim. Or he will attack a closeout perfectly, look at 4-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert in front of him, and not once, but twice, lob the ball well out of his reach for a bucket – the first one a banked runner, the second one a skyscraping floater that nearly kissed the ceiling. Or how about hitting a turnaround, and-one jumper over him? The package of shots that Dick has been throwing out this season seems endless, like a magician pulling handkerchiefs from his sleeve.
There’s a synergy in this. Agbaji can handle defensive matchups that Dick can’t, allowing Dick to survive a little better on that end. And Dick consumes all of the most difficult shots on the floor, does quite well on them, and pulls and stretches defenses with his gravity and brash shot-making – which helps create an environment where the 6’4-6’5 Agbaji can live at the rim.
This won’t stay static. The Raptors will get healthy and break this up, and it’s not even a dynamite duo that we’ll be sad to see go or anything like that. But, it’s something that works, at least a little bit. Finding out what works, where the little wins are? Well, that’s the silver lining on back-to-backs against great teams where you lose. You learn something that helps inform good decisions down the road.
We’re not in Kansas anymore.
Have a blessed day.
