The following is part of Raptors Republic’s series of pieces reviewing the season for the Toronto Raptors. You can find all the pieces in the series here.
In some ways, Gradey Dick’s sophomore season was the inverse of his rookie campaign. An incredible start, with a wall in the middle, and an underwhelming finish. There’s lots to glean from all of it, though.
I remember talking with Mike Brown, former Kings coach, around the beginning of November, and he told me that he thought Dick was the early frontrunner for the NBA’s most improved player award. Now, we know that award barely ever goes to 2nd year players, and there had only been a handful of games played at that point, but it was an exciting quote to match Dick’s exciting play. The Raptors sophomore was hot off the heels of a 30+ scoring outage against the Lakers, and he was averaging more than 20 ppg to start the season. He’d go on to help lift the Raptors over the Kings in overtime as the team celebrated Vince Carter’s jersey retirement.
The start of the Raptors season was all about Dick. The team was shorthanded and he was inhaling all available shots and opportunities. Flashing honed skills that had started to meet the level of his confidence. Dick was even getting defensive stops. Opposing coaches made him a focus of their gameplans, and on the other end, he was challenged to guard high, guard hard, and to take tough defensive assignments – even getting some important stops. All copacetic, baby. Let’s look at some numbers.
The first half of Dick’s season, 28 games:
32mpg / 17.8pts / 3.5rbs / 2.1asts / 1stl / 42/35/89 splits /
The second half, 26 games:
26.7mpg / 10.8pts / 3.7rbs / 1.5asts / .7stls / 39/34/80 splits /
Great full season numbers:
38-percent C&S 3pt shooting / 31-percent guarded / 46-percent unguarded
42-percent spot up 3pt shooting / 84th %ile out of spot ups (including attacking closeouts and drives)
Disappointing full season numbers:
Registered as below average (points per possession wise) as a pick n’ roll ball handler, out of handoffs, off of cuts, and in transition.
What do these numbers mean, mostly? That Dick was quite capable, elite even, at hitting the easier shots created for him. However, he receives a lot of defensive attention, extremely physical off-ball boxing matches, and the Raptors were a top-5 team in volume of off-ball plays, who asked him to take very difficult shots, very often.
Difficulty is part of the equation with Dick, though. The Raptors drafted him expecting him to be a tremendous movement shooter and multi-purpose offensive tool. He is the exact type of player who is supposed to eventually beat difficult coverages and provide heaps of impact through his ability to reshape the defense and keep offenses afloat when they’re struggling to create easy looks. Especially when you consider that he isn’t expected to provide positive impact on defense (although that would be a very welcome surprise).
I thought, at least partially, that a big reason for Dick’s fall off over the course of the season was the fact that he lost some of the mass that he acquired during the offseason. Not only did he ramp up to over 30 minutes per game, but he was also the NBA’s leader in miles traveled and screens used through the first quarter of the season. The Raptors were running him ragged, and he hit a huge wall. Fatigue and weight loss made all of the physical off ball battles even more difficult, and they certainly didn’t help him in his attempts to finish his winding, twisty jumpers and finishes at the bucket that require a lot of core tension to reward his elite touch.
At the start of the season, for example, Dick was rewarding a whole bunch of different play types, and was actually quite good out of drives.
This is context, not an excuse, for what it’s worth. Dick’s fitness, as I highlighted years ago on the podcast, was a concern for teams in the draft process. How he builds his body up for the NBA is a real part of his development, and a failure to do so will necessitate different routes to success.
The defense was quite bad, on the whole. The Raptors were obviously a better team defensively without him on the floor, and that’s with him being tethered, usually, to at least one of Jakob Poeltl or Scottie Barnes to help protect against some of the defensive breakdowns that would come with him on the floor. A lot of defensive numbers can be cushioned with friendly defensive contexts, but there was no amount of massaging that could hide or protect Dick adequately. By the end of the season it was a real sore spot, and in a worse place than it was at the outset of the campaign.
Obviously, Dick’s season ended in injury and an abundance of caution — considering he missed the last 20 games of the season — but it at least provided a lot to think about and consider. He provided a lot of answers about his potential as an offensive player. If things break right, he could be a player who easily goes north of 20ppg without demanding much of the offense, and could be a player who elevates lineups because of his gravity. He also, could be a guy who falls out of the league because the shot making doesn’t arrive at where it needs to be, and the defense lags behind for too long. It’s all still very much in play. Year 3 is massive for him.
We’ll see how it all shakes out.
Have a blessed day.
