Raptors' "special program" for Gradey Dick seems to be paying off
After a bit of a shaky start to the season, Toronto Raptors rookie Gradey Dick seems to finally be coming into his own.
The 13th overall pick out of the University of Kansas in this past year’s draft, it wasn’t too uncommon to see the 20-year-old look a little out of place through much of his first year in the NBA.
But that phase seems to be a thing of the past, a little under three-quarters of the way through the season.
Going four-for-four from three-point range, Dick put up 18 points and five rebounds on Monday night, helping propel the team to a 130-122 victory over the Indiana Pacers.
And while Dick struggled to crack the rotation at times earlier in the season, he’s suited up in each of the team’s last 16 games, averaging slightly over 20 minutes per night.
“Each game has a different lesson, and I’m just trying to take what I can get from each game, and sit down with the coaches, watch film and see different things that I did here or there and just try to build from it,” Dick told reporters last night.
According to Basketball Reference’s Game Score metric, eight of Dick’s top-10 performances this season have come since the new year, with last night being the best of his 37 NBA games to date.
And if it looks like he’s been a different player over the last two months, it seems like the rewards have come from a series of hiatuses from the NBA earlier in the year that included four games in the G League as well as a personalized development program.
āWell, Gradey, the last two weeks heās on a special program like with his weights, with conditioning,ā Toronto head coach Darko Rajakovic said in early January. āHeās been doing a lot of work. Heās been spending a lot of time on the court. We decided that this is a good moment for him to really focus on his body and we made a really good plan for him.”
Though the specifics of the plan weren’t quite expressed in all that much detail, whatever the Raptors decided seems to be working.
Dick has averaged 9.1 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 18 games since returning to the lineup on January 12, compared to 3.5 points, 1.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists in his first 19 games before the New Year.
Part of that opportunity comes from a roster shakeup, but most importantly, his three-point shooting percentage has gone up from 25% in the aforementioned first stretch of the season to 47% in the second.
“The young core and just the team in general, it’s so much fun to be around… I think that’s what helps us even more is when we’re all talking and just having a fun time, that kind of translates to the court,” Dick added.
The Raptors return to action Wednesday at Scotiabank Arena when they host the Dallas Mavericks. Tipoff for that one is set for 4:30 pm/7:30 pm ET.