Raptors add assured sharpshooter Gradey Dick as free-agent choices loom

TORONTO — You by no means draft for want, is the prevailing NBA knowledge. What your group wants at any given second and when a teenaged rookie would have the ability to present it are shifting targets that conceivably may by no means overlap.

However what if the perfect participant obtainable really excels in an space the place your group desperately wants assist?

Nicely, you then seize him and don’t look again.

After weeks of hypothesis about the potential for draft night time maneuvering as a method to reshape their roster, the Toronto Raptors stayed put at No. 13 and have been rewarded when Kansas Jayhawks freshman sharpshooter Gradey Dick was obtainable after being projected to go a couple of spots greater.

The Raptors had him in Toronto for a exercise simply final week and got a sneak preview of the shimmering crimson and black blazer he wore when Dick confirmed them image on his telephone at dinner.

That they picked him anyway is probably proof of how extremely they worth his talent and promise.

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The 2023 draft will ceaselessly be often known as the Victor Wembanyama draft — the large Frenchman went No. 1 total as had lengthy been predicted. There have been some good moments for Canadians as Montreal’s Olivier-Maxence Prosper went twenty fourth to Dallas (by way of a commerce with Sacramento) and Leonard Miller of Scarborough, Ont., ended up in Minnesota after a commerce with San Antonio, who took Miller with the thirty third decide.

From the Raptors’ standpoint, the draft was an vital step in upgrading their total expertise and the hope is Dick represents a step in that route.

The match is clear: The Raptors are coming off two seasons wherein they completed twenty eighth and nineteenth within the NBA in three-pointers made and haven’t had a rotation participant shoot 40 per cent from distance since Norm Powell within the 2020-21 season.

As Dick’s school coach Invoice Self mentioned: “He makes photographs, that’s actually what he does greatest… offensively he’s fairly rattling good.”

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It’s lots to count on {that a} slim 19-year-old can alter that trajectory as a rookie, however his skill to shoot from past the arc on the school stage was uncommon, particularly for a participant who stands six-foot-eight and has extra in his bag than simply standing on the three-point line and letting it fly.

“He’s not only a shooter,” mentioned Raptors basic supervisor Bobby Webster. “I believe he is aware of find out how to play off the ball. He is aware of find out how to make backdoor cuts. He can go nicely, he rebounds nicely, so I believe he’s, you understand, extra of a well-rounded participant despite the fact that he’s in all probability going to get pegged early as only a shooter… I believe that was extra of the enchantment that he may do all the opposite issues too.”

Dick transformed his threes at a 40 per cent fee with Kansas whereas getting up practically six makes an attempt per sport. Dick additionally confirmed some skill in chopping and ending as he shot 48.4 per cent from contained in the arc. He shot 54 per cent on threes taken off the dribble, which was the perfect in school basketball in line with ESPN.

And he’s not shy. He was the toast — and sometimes toasted — on social media for his go well with jacket, diamond chain and sun shades mixture, and his movies on TikTok are amusingly goofy. He’s not shy, and he doesn’t take himself too significantly.

“I’m actually simply getting throughout that I’m going to be myself in every part that I do,” Dick mentioned. “I’m by no means going to enter one thing and attempt to be somebody who I’m not, like stroll within the tunnel with a stone face and attempt to be too cool for something. I’ll by no means be like that and I’m by no means gonna lose that, ever. Go there, have a enjoyable time. That’s when I’ve probably the most enjoyable in life, after I’m enjoying basketball and am capable of present my feelings.”

He shares an company with Raptors ahead Scottie Barnes, they usually’ve already related — they’ve ties by the Florida basketball scene the place Dick performed his final two years of highschool. Dick is optimistic he’ll have the ability to combine into his new group rapidly, on and off the ground.

It’s not a rookie’s job to repair a group’s tradition or chemistry — there have been questions round each points on the Raptors final season — however Dick is set to slot in.

“I believe it’s simply my selfless mindset and angle… I believe when a group performs selflessly it simply makes the entire season much more enjoyable,” mentioned Dick. “I actually really feel coming into this group and no matter function the coach provides me, I’m completely superb with. It’s simply basketball on the finish of the day. I simply like to be on the courtroom. I’m going to do every part in my energy to guard that function and actually simply have enjoyable doing it.”

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That the Raptors used their decide paused — briefly not less than — a gradual drumbeat of rumours and hypothesis about what route Toronto is perhaps headed on draft night time. There have been strategies that the Raptors may attempt to package deal some core items and transfer up within the draft, maybe with a watch on Portland’s decide at No. 3 total and even shifting again within the draft, given a number of groups had a couple of first-round decide and the pool of high quality prospects ran deep.

Was shifting as much as No. 3 ever a chance?

“You’d must ask [Portland],” mentioned Webster.

The noise ought to decide up once more within the coming days as groups can start negotiating with free brokers. The Raptors have two important ones in Jakob Poeltl and Fred VanVleet. Had there been a big commerce on draft night time or within the lead-up to it questions round signing the 2 key veterans may need intensified, however in holding the decide and with information earlier this week that the Raptors are seemingly going to succeed in an settlement on a contract extension with Gary Trent Jr., it turns into simpler to mission that Toronto will certainly return with most the important thing items of the roster they completed final season with intact.

“We now have massive free brokers,” mentioned Webster. “That would be the subsequent week: we’ll have the ability to determine. We’ll speak to them and see the place they’re, and we’ll take pleasure in one other week’s information cycle of all of the rumours and gossip.”

The place Dick ultimately suits in that hierarchy will stay to be seen. Probably the most optimistic projections have him with a profile that resembles that of Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson.

It’s an excessive amount of at this stage to counsel {that a} rookie taken Thirteenth total will match steps with a four-time NBA champion and sure Corridor-of-Famer who ranks eleventh all-time in threes made and 18th in three-point share.

That mentioned, as a 21-year-old rookie Thompson scored 12.5 factors a sport and shot 41.4 per cent from three and the Raptors would probably be ecstatic if Dick may recreate one thing resembling that stage of manufacturing.

Dick is assured he can hit the ground operating — and capturing.

“My greatest aim coming into that is making an prompt impression early,” he mentioned. “Coming in, seeing a group, particularly like Toronto, and convey that capturing skill, the factor I take delight in probably the most.”

Extra from Sportsnet

Spurs take potential franchise cornerstone Victor Wembanyama first total in NBA Draft

Report: Raptors signal undrafted guard Markquis Nowell to two-way deal

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