Raptors add confident sharpshooter Gradey Dick as free-agent decisions loom

TORONTO — You never draft for need, is the prevailing NBA wisdom. What your team needs at any given moment and when a teenaged rookie would be able to provide it are moving targets that conceivably might never overlap.

But what if the best player available actually excels in an area where your team desperately needs help?

Well, then you grab him and don’t look back.

After weeks of speculation about the possibility of draft night maneuvering as a means to reshape their roster, the Toronto Raptors stayed put at No. 13 and were rewarded when Kansas Jayhawks freshman sharpshooter Gradey Dick was available after being projected to go a few spots higher.

The Raptors had him in Toronto for a workout just last week and were given a sneak preview of the shimmering red and black blazer he wore when Dick showed them picture on his phone at dinner.

That they picked him anyway is perhaps proof of how highly they value his skill and promise.

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The 2023 draft will forever be known as the Victor Wembanyama draft — the big Frenchman went No. 1 overall as had long been predicted. There were some nice moments for Canadians as Montreal’s Olivier-Maxence Prosper went 24th to Dallas (via a trade with Sacramento) and Leonard Miller of Scarborough, Ont., ended up in Minnesota after a trade with San Antonio, who took Miller with the 33rd pick.

From the Raptors’ point of view, the draft was an important step in upgrading their overall talent and the hope is Dick represents a step in that direction.

The fit is obvious: The Raptors are coming off two seasons in which they finished 28th and 19th in the NBA in three-pointers made and haven’t had a rotation player shoot 40 per cent from distance since Norm Powell in the 2020-21 season.

As Dick’s college coach Bill Self said: “He makes shots, that’s really what he does best… offensively he’s pretty damn good.”

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It’s a lot to expect that a slim 19-year-old can alter that trajectory as a rookie, but his ability to shoot from beyond the arc at the college level was rare, especially for a player who stands six-foot-eight and has more in his bag than just standing at the three-point line and letting it fly.

“He’s not just a shooter,” said Raptors general manager Bobby Webster. “I think he knows how to play off the ball. He knows how to make backdoor cuts. He can pass well, he rebounds well, so I think he’s, you know, more of a well-rounded player even though he’s probably going to get pegged early as just a shooter… I think that was more of the appeal that he could do all the other things too.”

Dick converted his threes at a 40 per cent rate with Kansas while getting up nearly six attempts per game. Dick also showed some ability in cutting and finishing as he shot 48.4 per cent from inside the arc. He shot 54 per cent on threes taken off the dribble, which was the best in college basketball according to ESPN.

And he’s not shy. He was the toast — and often toasted — on social media for his suit jacket, diamond chain and sunglasses combination, and his videos on TikTok are amusingly goofy. He’s not shy, and he doesn’t take himself too seriously.

“I’m really just getting across that I’m going to be myself in everything that I do,” Dick said. “I’m never going to go into something and try to be someone who I’m not, like walk in the tunnel with a stone face and try to be too cool for anything. I’ll never be like that and I’m never gonna lose that, ever. Go there, have a fun time. That’s when I have the most fun in life, when I’m playing basketball and am able to show my emotions.”

He shares an agency with Raptors forward Scottie Barnes, and they’ve already connected — they have ties through the Florida basketball scene where Dick played his last two years of high school. Dick is optimistic he’ll be able to integrate into his new team quickly, on and off the floor.

It’s not a rookie’s job to fix a team’s culture or chemistry — there were questions around both issues on the Raptors last season — but Dick is determined to fit in.

“I think it’s just my selfless mindset and attitude… I think when a team plays selflessly it just makes the whole season a lot more fun,” said Dick. “I really feel coming into this organization and whatever role the coach gives me, I’m perfectly fine with. It’s just basketball at the end of the day. I just love to be on the court. I’m going to do everything in my power to protect that role and really just have fun doing it.”

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That the Raptors used their pick paused — temporarily at least — a steady drumbeat of rumours and speculation about what direction Toronto might be headed on draft night. There were suggestions that the Raptors could try to package some core pieces and move up in the draft, perhaps with an eye on Portland’s pick at No. 3 overall or even moving back in the draft, given multiple teams had more than one first-round pick and the pool of quality prospects ran deep.

Was moving up to No. 3 ever a possibility?

“You’d have to ask [Portland],” said Webster.

The noise should pick up again in the coming days as teams can begin negotiating with free agents. The Raptors have two significant ones in Jakob Poeltl and Fred VanVleet. Had there been a significant trade on draft night or in the lead-up to it questions around signing the two key veterans might have intensified, but in keeping the pick and with news earlier this week that the Raptors are likely going to reach an agreement on a contract extension with Gary Trent Jr., it becomes easier to project that Toronto will indeed return with most the key pieces of the roster they finished last season with intact.

“We have big free agents,” said Webster. “That will be the next week: we’ll be able to decide. We’ll talk to them and see where they are, and we’ll enjoy another week’s news cycle of all the rumours and gossip.”

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Where Dick eventually fits in that hierarchy will remain to be seen. The most optimistic projections have him with a profile that resembles that of Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson.

It’s too much at this stage to suggest that a rookie taken 13th overall will match steps with a four-time NBA champion and likely Hall-of-Famer who ranks 11th all-time in threes made and 18th in three-point percentage.

That said, as a 21-year-old rookie Thompson scored 12.5 points a game and shot 41.4 per cent from three and the Raptors would doubtless be ecstatic if Dick could recreate something resembling that level of production.

Dick is confident he can hit the floor running — and shooting.

“My biggest goal coming into this is making an instant impact early,” he said. “Coming in, seeing a team, especially like Toronto, and bring that shooting ability, the thing I take pride in the most.”

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