Gradey Dick was glad it was February and not November.
In the opening days of this month, the rookie’s Toronto Raptors were making their only visit of the year to Oklahoma City, which is the closest NBA stop to Dick’s hometown of Wichita, Kansas. Both of Dick’s brothers were able to make the game, resulting in a family dinner the night before and a family lunch the day of. (Dick’s sister lives in New York, and couldn’t make the game.) He had a large number of tickets for other family and friends.
Dick played 10 minutes that evening, a 160-mile trek south of where he grew up. Not the “homecoming” he wanted, but he can take solace in that those 10 minutes were the least he’s played in the last 13 games. After being bounced from the rotation early in the season, going down to the G League with Raptors 905 and putting many hours into getting stronger, Dick made himself a legitimate part of the Raptors’ nightly plan. Barring injury, that will remain the case for the rest of the season.
“I think just being consistent in the weight room. I mean, at my age, I have so much room to grow, obviously. It’s just getting on a program where I’m in the weight room and working on my body,” Dick told The Athletic in Oklahoma City, explaining his improvement and increasing strength. “And the main thing is just being consistent with it.
“It’s just feeling right in your body and just being able to move well and have good energy and stuff like that. It’s not only just all being strong, it’s actually taking care of your diet and feeling energized out there. I think those are little things that I’m trying to lock in on — a lot of things I’m learning now that I probably didn’t know as much in the past.”
Whatever Dick is doing, it’s working. His increased playing time has coincided with the trades of OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam, and thus the reordering of priorities. Dick shot 44 percent from deep in those 13 games leading into the break, doing a lot to erase the memory of his wayward shooting to begin the year. He looks more confident shooting the ball, letting it go from the corner unless a defender is in his jersey.
He has also shown some improved playmaking on the second side, flashing the skills that will help the 13th pick from the 2023 NBA Draft be something more than just a designated shooter.
“Everything that we expected from him, he’s able to produce it now,” Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković said last week. “I think that he went through all the phases that a rookie needs to go through, from being overwhelmed to really (putting) a lot of work in, to be able to play with 905 — and he had extended minutes — find the rhythm there, but also stepping on the court for us and being able to see that all the work he put in is actually paying off. I think that he made huge strides defensively. He’s doing a much better job on his shots, being in better balance. That’s something that our coaches plus performance (team) really focussed on, from day one. And his body is slowly changing. When he walked in, he looked like he was 16. Now, he looks like he’s 17 and a half.”
How Dick finishes the season is one of the more intriguing storylines of the final 27 games for the Raptors. Will he get the chance to start regularly? It is not as if Gary Trent Jr. has set an impossible bar to reach. On the other hand, that would put Dick’s defensive improvement to the test, and risk the confidence he has built to get to this point. Is getting that experience worth the risk?
Here are four other questions that will define the final eight weeks of the Raptors’ season. (Apologies to those who care about defence, which will continue to be lacking unless something bizarre happens the rest of the way.)
How low can they go? And how low should they want to go?
The Raptors enter the season’s final sprint with the league’s sixth-worst record, a half-game worse than the Memphis Grizzlies.
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .