Can Gradey Dick breakthrough this season?
The following is part of Raptors Republic’s series of pieces previewing the season for the Toronto Raptors. You can find all the pieces in the series here.
In the modern NBA it feels like young players are on an extremely accelerated timeline. Gone are the days where fans and NBA organization members patiently wait for a young lottery pick to develop and grow over the course of five years or so. If a player isn’t established by their third season, it feels like they are behind schedule. Gradey Dick’s first two seasons have been filled with flashes of what his value can be if things were to pan out, but they have also been filled with struggles and roadblocks as well. Dick is headed into his third season, and this season will be a huge one for him as Toronto is looking to break out of the rebuilding phase and return to the post-season.
With these new aspirations in Toronto, there is less room for Dick to to try and figure it out on the floor, whether that be defensively or figuring out his maximized role on offense. Dick’s third season has the potential to be his best, but he does have some issues that he needs to make serious progress on this year.
Dick’s most glaring flaw on the court is his lack of ability on the defensive end. Dick’s defense at times has caused head coach Darko Rajakovic to be forced to pull him early. The silver lining about his defense is that the struggles are not due to a lack of effort. When you watch Dick on defense, you see him actively sliding his feet, trying to beat opposing ball handlers to their spots, rotating early to try and offer extra protection at the rim. The issues stem from Dick’s small frame. Dick is 6’6” and 205 pounds, a very slight frame that makes it tough to stick with opposing wings and guards in the NBA. This isn’t to say that Dick isn’t sometimes caught overhelping, or being out of position– but for the most part it is physical attributes that are holding him back.
Part of his struggles defensively are caused by Toronto’s aggressive defensive scheme. Toronto pressures the ball immensely, and Dick was asked to do this as well– which led to some blunders. He doesn’t have the speed or recovery ability to catch up with a ball handler after a blow by so having him try to execute this scheme placed a bit of a strain on him. Dick was top 20 in the NBA miles traveled on defense, a clear sign of just how much work he was putting in on that end.
What can be done to help Dick defensively is lowering his point-of-attack defensive reps, and having him play in more of a helper role. Throughout his entire career he has been more than willing to rotate on defense and put his body on the line to get a stop. It would also help if Dick gained more strength this summer headed into the season, so he can hold up better physically as well. He doesn’t have to be an elite defender, he just can’t be as poor a defender as he has been thus far.
With Toronto hopefully being a more healthy team this season, Dick will often be in lineups with Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl on the back end, two defenders who have shown they can carry a defense on their shoulders.
The offensive end is where Dick can offer his maximum value to Toronto this season, and this year he will be playing in much better environments for his game. Last season, Dick posted averages of 14.4 points per game, 1.8 assists per game and 2.8 rebounds per game, while shooting 35 percent from three on 50 percent true shooting. Dick’s finishing is the biggest flaw in his offensive repertoire at the moment as he finished just 52.5 percent of his looks at the rim. Once again the context in which Dick is playing is a cause for his poor finishing, and also his slight frame when trying to attack the basket has held him back.
Dick has never been shy about going to the rim and challenging any defender there, but his confidence as a driver does not match his production as a driver. In Dick’s defense, Toronto was one of the poorest spaced teams in the league last season, ranking 28th in three pointers attempted and 29th in three-pointers made.
In order to circumvent the drawbacks that come with a low-volume three-point shooting team, Rajakovic has them be extremely active in transition, and extremely focused on moving the ball and cutting. While these things have resulted in an offense that is top seven in assists per game, the overall offense still ranked 26th overall.
Dick was often the lone floor spacer in his lineups, and although his overall outside shooting numbers are not out of this world, he is still shown that respect as a shooter, and forces closeouts. Toronto would often have Dick run around curl around screens, sprint by pin down screens on the weak side, and just be in constant motion in order to occupy defenders while the ball handler would try to create something.
Dick also shot 38.3 percent on catch and shoot threes last season– a mark that forced defenders to respect him as a floor spacer. This season the growth that he needs to show is just getting his overall efficiency up. With Brandon Ingram and Immanuel Quickley hopefully being healthy this season, there will be more consistent creation in Toronto in the lineups that Dick will play in, leading to easier shot attempts for him. Ingram’s presence especially should help Dick get better looks as his shot creation and playmaking will force the defense to pay attention to him, which will give Dick more gaps to attack.
Dick was forced to play in some weak offensive lineups last season, with multiple rookies and minimal floor spacing, so with Quickley, Ingram, and Barnes, being available more, he will be playing in much better contexts for himself and should see an increase in his overall efficiency.
Toronto ranked top three in transition possessions last season, and this is another area in which Dick can potentially shine. Dick can frequently be seen filling the lane on a fast break, but last year he was only in the 22nd percentile for transition shooting 41 percent from the field on transition looks. Transition offense is some of the easiest looks that can be generated in the NBA, and an easy way for Dick to improve his efficiency is to take better advantage of these looks.
Although Dick could only play in 54 games last season due to injury, the expectations headed into this year are still high. Dick is more than just a shooter, he is a very important cog in the offense that could help it improve heavily. The team is better this season, and Dick needs to take advantage of the better ecosystem that he will be in. His tireless movement all over the court along with his effort can not be questioned, and if all things go well, Dick will emerge as one of the better offensive rotation players in the NBA.
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