The Gradey Dick Thread Part 3

[raptorforlife88]

Gradey has made incredible jumps in a lot of things in just 12 months. Excited what the next 12 months look for him.

Positives from seeing him so far are the physical growth, which is allowing him to finish strong, his overall movement, some improvements on defense, his midrange shot.

Areas of concern is his inconsistent three point shot. At least he has ways to score when that shot isn't falling, but it's really going to be the difference maker.

[Tripod]

I used to hate under Nurse guys standing still while 1 guy goes ISO. Having guys move around WITH INTENTION help the offense so much.

Gradey is showing he has great cutting instincts and lots of energy on the court and its contagious.

He is so much more than a shooter

[Scase]

Gradey has made incredible jumps in a lot of things in just 12 months. Excited what the next 12 months look for him.

Positives from seeing him so far are the physical growth, which is allowing him to finish strong, his overall movement, some improvements on defense, his midrange shot.

Areas of concern is his inconsistent three point shot. At least he has ways to score when that shot isn't falling, but it's really going to be the difference maker.

3pt shots by their very nature are subject to a lot of variance so I'm not super concerned about it. I still think he settles in at 37-38% by EOY. The rest of his game has looked SUPER promising, hell, even his defence looked much improved against the Nets. He was a neutral to slightly positive defender in college, so I have faith that he will get there in the NBA. A lot of it is just bumping into grown ass men, and he's still built like a kid.

Give him a couple more years to fill out, and I think we have a high end starter on our hands. I see him as a fringe AS player, he'll have the accolades to be an injury replacement, but he'll likely never make it since Scottie will be the lone Raptor representative.

[WuTang_CMB]

Watch on YouTube

[Scase]

Watch on YouTube

This is an excellent break down, and it is precisely the reason why I want us to prioritize him and his development over RJ. His offensive game is extremely versatile, he is going to be a 3 level scorer. Not that I don't think the two can't co-exist, but as we all know, there is only one ball.

And the talk about having both of them in the SL is bad for defence (which is true) and having Ochai be in the SL for defence, at the detriment of Gradey I think is a bad call. It's a hot take to say RJ should come off the bench, I don't think we are deep enough right now to have that discussion, but long term if we are to keep RJ, he should be taking a backseat to Gradey, assuming he continues down this trajectory.

He's a much better fit for the modern NBA, and eventually a decision will need to be made. As for this season, I say **** it. Run em both in the SL, have us lose games due to defence, so long as it results in more reps. Gradey and Scottie have an extremely complimentary game, and have shown even in extremely limited shared court time (only 339min total) how well they play together, let's give them all the time possible.

One of the best bits from that video, was a quote from Gradey where he talks about moving and cutting. Cuts don't get you a shot, they get someone else a better shot, so even if there is only one ball, he still has positive impacts on the offence that I don't think anyone else on the roster provides.

Also those above the break %'s are looking gooooooooooooood. People are not high enough on this kid IMO.

Side note, Samson is the ****.

[raptorforlife88]

Watch on YouTube

As he has consistently shown in the latter half of last season and to start this year, Gradey has the ability to keep moving to find space, and the ability to score from all areas of the court. I think I counted 10 dribbles on his 10 made baskets even though he was hitting more than threes. Klay-esque.

He hasn't had the most involved games outside of his shooting, but I'm sure he'll rebound and pass at least like he did last year as the season gets going.

[Vampirate]

Gradey has made incredible jumps in a lot of things in just 12 months. Excited what the next 12 months look for him.

Positives from seeing him so far are the physical growth, which is allowing him to finish strong, his overall movement, some improvements on defense, his midrange shot.

Areas of concern is his inconsistent three point shot. At least he has ways to score when that shot isn't falling, but it's really going to be the difference maker.

3pt shots by their very nature are subject to a lot of variance so I'm not super concerned about it. I still think he settles in at 37-38% by EOY. The rest of his game has looked SUPER promising, hell, even his defence looked much improved against the Nets. He was a neutral to slightly positive defender in college, so I have faith that he will get there in the NBA. A lot of it is just bumping into grown ass men, and he's still built like a kid.

Give him a couple more years to fill out, and I think we have a high end starter on our hands. I see him as a fringe AS player, he'll have the accolades to be an injury replacement, but he'll likely never make it since Scottie will be the lone Raptor representative.

Barnes needs to be much better than what he's shown though, I saw some mid range in that Boston game in the highlight video.

Of course, there's also the possibility that whomever we draft just jumps Barnes as the Raptors representative in the All Star game, can't predict the future.

Hopefully though we'll have at least 2 players going eventually.

[LoveMyRaps]

Watch on YouTube

[Vampirate]

Norm for GTJ was a nice gamble but we lost that trade a bit.

Literally no one here cared that GTJ walked lol.

Imo Gradey pretty much makes it irrelevant now and i'd rather have him over both moving forewords.

[anotherhomer]

Norm for GTJ was a nice gamble but we lost that trade a bit.

Literally no one here cared that GTJ walked lol.

Imo Gradey pretty much makes it irrelevant now and i'd rather have him over both moving forewords.

have to agree but oh well....not every move works out, but you need to have more hits than misses

Gradey Dick is a good pick nevertheless

[OakleyDokely]

After the first week:

27.7 MIN, 16.3 PPG, 1.3 REB, 1.0 AST, 0.7 STL, 0.7 BLK, .447 FG, .368 3PT, 1.000 FT, .590 TS

[HumbleRen]

After the first week:

27.7 MIN, 16.3 PPG, 1.3 REB, 1.0 AST, 0.7 STL, 0.7 BLK, .447 FG, .368 3PT, 1.000 FT, .590 TS

Good ol GTJ statline lol.

Hopefully his numbers start reflecting how he appears to be playing. Seems to be making the right reads in terms of passes.

[OakleyDokely]

After the first week:

27.7 MIN, 16.3 PPG, 1.3 REB, 1.0 AST, 0.7 STL, 0.7 BLK, .447 FG, .368 3PT, 1.000 FT, .590 TS

Good ol GTJ statline lol.

Hopefully his numbers start reflecting how he appears to be playing. Seems to be making the right reads in terms of passes.

ya, he's mostly had to be a play finisher due to IQ/RJ being out. I think you see his other counting stats tick up when he's the 4th/5th option.

[sbsat]

An earlier iteration of this thread said cam whitmore was better than dick.

[Duffman100]

An earlier iteration of this thread said cam whitmore was better than dick.

He still may be, it's probably just good that we all realize these hot takes on 19/20 year olds is a little ridiculous.

[REJECTEDBYCLARK]

An earlier iteration of this thread said cam whitmore was better than dick.

He still may be, it's probably just good that we all realize these hot takes on 19/20 year olds is a little ridiculous.

-edited

Longer ban incoming.

[HumbleRen]

An earlier iteration of this thread said cam whitmore was better than dick.

One guy is playing behind FVV, Brooks, and Green, the other is starting for a team that has no shooting at the moment outside of him.

Massive difference in context lol.

[Scase]

Positives from seeing him so far are the physical growth, which is allowing him to finish strong, his overall movement, some improvements on defense, his midrange shot.

Areas of concern is his inconsistent three point shot. At least he has ways to score when that shot isn't falling, but it's really going to be the difference maker.

3pt shots by their very nature are subject to a lot of variance so I'm not super concerned about it. I still think he settles in at 37-38% by EOY. The rest of his game has looked SUPER promising, hell, even his defence looked much improved against the Nets. He was a neutral to slightly positive defender in college, so I have faith that he will get there in the NBA. A lot of it is just bumping into grown ass men, and he's still built like a kid.

Give him a couple more years to fill out, and I think we have a high end starter on our hands. I see him as a fringe AS player, he'll have the accolades to be an injury replacement, but he'll likely never make it since Scottie will be the lone Raptor representative.

Barnes needs to be much better than what he's shown though, I saw some mid range in that Boston game in the highlight video.

Of course, there's also the possibility that whomever we draft just jumps Barnes as the Raptors representative in the All Star game, can't predict the future.

Hopefully though we'll have at least 2 players going eventually.

Yeah, just based on what we've got for now, and assuming Scottie continues to improve, our team won't be good enough to get 2 AS players. If we can steal a top 5 pick, that could very well change soon though.

[will]

Norm for GTJ was a nice gamble but we lost that trade a bit.

Literally no one here cared that GTJ walked lol.

Imo Gradey pretty much makes it irrelevant now and i'd rather have him over both moving forewords.

I'm cheesed that we won't get too many (if any) Gary Senior interviews with will lou and steven lebron!

[TDots97]

Watch on YouTube

This is an excellent break down, and it is precisely the reason why I want us to prioritize him and his development over RJ. His offensive game is extremely versatile, he is going to be a 3 level scorer. Not that I don't think the two can't co-exist, but as we all know, there is only one ball.

And the talk about having both of them in the SL is bad for defence (which is true) and having Ochai be in the SL for defence, at the detriment of Gradey I think is a bad call. It's a hot take to say RJ should come off the bench, I don't think we are deep enough right now to have that discussion, but long term if we are to keep RJ, he should be taking a backseat to Gradey, assuming he continues down this trajectory.

He's a much better fit for the modern NBA, and eventually a decision will need to be made. As for this season, I say **** it. Run em both in the SL, have us lose games due to defence, so long as it results in more reps. Gradey and Scottie have an extremely complimentary game, and have shown even in extremely limited shared court time (only 339min total) how well they play together, let's give them all the time possible.

One of the best bits from that video, was a quote from Gradey where he talks about moving and cutting. Cuts don't get you a shot, they get someone else a better shot, so even if there is only one ball, he still has positive impacts on the offence that I don't think anyone else on the roster provides.

Also those above the break %'s are looking gooooooooooooood. People are not high enough on this kid IMO.

Side note, Samson is the ****.

I know that's too soon for that talk, but unless RJ makes a gigantic jump in terms of versatility offensively and/or defensive impact, I could see him being traded for an upgrade at SF for a 3+D type of guy, but we'll have to wait until Gradey is fully unleashed and breaking out for that to happen imo. I do agree that you can't have both players long-term unless one of them becomes competent defensively and Gradey fits the modern NBA better even though RJ has a very necessary skill with his downhill attacks.