The Gradey Dick Thread Part 2

[JShuttlesworth]

Last two games Gradey has looked so much better than he did early on

Some shots are starting to go down for him, and I thought he made some nice passes against the Heat

[dagger]

The most interesting feature of his outside shooting is that he doesn’t seem like he will be a feast or famine type who will go 4-6 from 3 one night and 0-6 the next. More lirly he will get one or two threes at a minimum. I see a lot of potential for a more varied offensive game like Klay Thompson. Even his potential as a defender in the paint is intriguing but his perimeter D is atrocious and where the coaches will have to work long and hard to get him to, say league average, where to position himself against good guards, how to guide drivers into help defenders, etc. The two big things offensively i see is getting him to drive a bit to get him to the free throw line where he profiles as our best free throw shooter since Jose Calderon, with an effortless very repeatable stroke. He also needs to develop a two man game with Scottie when they play together, keeping in Barnes’ sight line so he can pass out of the kind of pressure Scottie got from the Knicks and punish opponents. Dick and Barnes are both tall and ought to be able to find each other even when Scottie is being swarmed.

[Zeno]

I think a lot of Gradey’s problems have been strength related. He was bad from the corners in college and now he’s hitting those. Once he gets used to the distance from further out he’s going to be very good.
He’s 15/15 to start from the free throw line. He hasn’t just. Forgotten how to shoot. He’s just having trouble generating the power to make shots from distance.

[DG88]

2 solid games from Gradey. Hopefully this is a good trend for him.

[mtcan]

The most interesting feature of his outside shooting is that he doesn’t seem like he will be a feast or famine type who will go 4-6 from 3 one night and 0-6 the next. More lirly he will get one or two threes at a minimum. I see a lot of potential for a more varied offensive game like Klay Thompson. Even his potential as a defender in the paint is intriguing but his perimeter D is atrocious and where the coaches will have to work long and hard to get him to, say league average, where to position himself against good guards, how to guide drivers into help defenders, etc. The two big things offensively i see is getting him to drive a bit to get him to the free throw line where he profiles as our best free throw shooter since Jose Calderon, with an effortless very repeatable stroke. He also needs to develop a two man game with Scottie when they play together, keeping in Barnes’ sight line so he can pass out of the kind of pressure Scottie got from the Knicks and punish opponents. Dick and Barnes are both tall and ought to be able to find each other even when Scottie is being swarmed.

I think the defence is a bit overstated. The white guy shooter will always get targeted on defence but it hasn't stopped the Heat from starting guys like Duncan Robinson and Max Struts and making deep playoff runs. Kyle Korver was a starter on a lot of playoff teams.

I said from the start...what Gradey lacks in athleticism, he makes up for in his IQ. He sees the floor well and makes good decisions. He isn't going to get you 2 steals and blocks but he will be fine.

[Westside Gunn]

I like how the bar is set so low now for our 13th pick. OMG he made two shots, the future is looking bright.

[refshateRaps]

I like how the bar is set so low now for our 13th pick. OMG he made two shots, the future is looking bright.

Cmon you're suppose to join the 'enjoy the ride' gang.

On an honest note, Its his D positioning, quickness and awareness that is very hard to watch right now. Hopefully they work on that heavily in the offseason or he'll be out of the league quick. All the shooting is worthless, if this part pf his game doesn't make a giant leap.

[kieferli]

Since we are going to rebuild , we will see him a lot of time the rest if season t develop. Now he don’t have too much pressure because we are not going to care wins or losses every night and pretty sure our coaching staffs have an order to play him more

[HangTime]

Am I one of the only ones that thinks he looked great the last two games?

[mihaic]

Am I one of the only ones that thinks he looked great the last two games?

Offensively he looked very good, but defensively *if* you think he was great you may be the only one.

[CazOnReal]

He's still got time to turn us all into believers.

Last two games he's shown flashes of being a good player.

Can he be our Duncan Robinson?

I don't get the DR comparisons beyond "he's white and shoots".

Gradey is a bit more versatile a player on offense, namely his passing and generally solid court vision. He's honestly closer to a working class Reggie Miller than he is, like, Luke Kennard. If one wanted to go for a player comp of "white shooter with not good defense and underrated playmaking", i'd go with Gordon Hayward even though, again, not a prefect comparison given Gordon Hayward has a much deeper bag than shooting 3s at a high level.

[Grew]

Gradey played good to great defense yesterday besides two or three drives Brunson had on him in garbage time when we were already broken and the team left him on an island. Actually stripped Brunson 1v1 on a drive in that sequence too. Had some deflections, a steal, stopped Randle on the one isolation he had on him. Still gets caught overhelping and out of position a bit, but he will continue to figure that out. Overall liked what I saw from Gradey on D last night.

Obviously the shots starting to drop is huge as well, but we all knew that was coming, right guys?

[tecumseh18]

I think the defence is a bit overstated. The white guy shooter will always get targeted on defence but it hasn't stopped the Heat from starting guys like Duncan Robinson and Max Struts and making deep playoff runs. Kyle Korver was a starter on a lot of playoff teams.

As all we know from watching Kyle Lowry for 10 years, girth and strength matters when it comes to playing defence.

DR, Korver and even JJ Reddick became passable defenders (or at least didn't get played off the floor) at least in part because they had a solid base/lower body strength. You wouldn't see a strong guy just drive right through them as we witnessed OG Anunoby do to Gradey last night.

[Tor_Raps]

Makes shots - wow, he looks great
Misses shots - he's a bust.

It's gonna be that simple for his future lol.

[XTC]

Makes shots - wow, he looks great
Misses shots - he's a bust.

It's gonna be that simple for his future lol.

Honestly this. No one cares how many rebounds, assists, back door cuts, or solid his handle looks.

Is he passable defensively? How much gravity does he have as a shooter? Those two things are going to dictate his value in the league. He's never going to be an allstar, but if he can bring gravity and become a release valve on offense that's huge.

If you can nab a Korver, Redick, or Duncan Robinson at #13 you drafted very well.

[Tor_Raps]

Makes shots - wow, he looks great
Misses shots - he's a bust.

It's gonna be that simple for his future lol.

Honestly this. No one cares how many rebounds, assists, back door cuts, or solid his handle looks.

Is he passable defensively? How much gravity does he have as a shooter? Those two things are going to dictate his value in the league. He's never going to be an allstar, but if he can bring gravity and become a release valve on offense that's huge.

If you can nab a Korver, Redick, or Korver at #13 you drafted very well.

His next step is going to be start hunting shots instead if just waiting in the corner for the ball. That'll only happen once he begins to build confidence.

[KawhiSoSerious]

Makes shots - wow, he looks great
Misses shots - he's a bust.

It's gonna be that simple for his future lol.

Honestly this. No one cares how many rebounds, assists, back door cuts, or solid his handle looks.

Is he passable defensively? How much gravity does he have as a shooter? Those two things are going to dictate his value in the league. He's never going to be an allstar, but if he can bring gravity and become a release valve on offense that's huge.

If you can nab a Korver, Redick, or Korver at #13 you drafted very well.

How about Korver?

[XTC]

Makes shots - wow, he looks great
Misses shots - he's a bust.

It's gonna be that simple for his future lol.

Honestly this. No one cares how many rebounds, assists, back door cuts, or solid his handle looks.

Is he passable defensively? How much gravity does he have as a shooter? Those two things are going to dictate his value in the league. He's never going to be an allstar, but if he can bring gravity and become a release valve on offense that's huge.

If you can nab a Korver, Redick, or Korver at #13 you drafted very well.

How about Korver?

I meant to say Duncan Robinson

We all know what his archetype is. If he adds some ball handling to his game he could peak as a Mike Miller. I'm shocked his game is this raw, because his jumper was money in college. If he's having trouble adjusting to NBA range, he needs to be in the weight room and working on his shot all summer. He's a project at this point, which is kind of sad considering his ceiling, but we badly need his to hit his potential because his archetype fits perfectly with Scottie.

I honestly dont think Masai envisioned his strength issues being this big of an issue.

[Got Nuffin]

Honestly this. No one cares how many rebounds, assists, back door cuts, or solid his handle looks.

Is he passable defensively? How much gravity does he have as a shooter? Those two things are going to dictate his value in the league. He's never going to be an allstar, but if he can bring gravity and become a release valve on offense that's huge.

If you can nab a Korver, Redick, or Korver at #13 you drafted very well.

How about Korver?

I meant to say Duncan Robinson

We all know what his archetype is. If he adds some ball handling to his game he could peak as a Mike Miller. I'm shocked his game is this raw, because his jumper was money in college. If he's having trouble adjusting to NBA range, he needs to be in the weight room and working on his shot all summer. He's a project at this point, which is kind of sad considering his ceiling, but we badly need his to hit his potential because his archetype fits perfectly with Scottie.

I honestly dont think Masai envisioned his strength issues being this big of an issue.

If it really is just a strength thing, then this issue is a tiny blimp in his career and he should be an elite shooter down the line, because that's so easily fixable as long as he doesn't go all JV on us and hulk up (which would be insanity anyway).

I think we were all worried that Dick was becoming the next Markell Fultz 'yips' victim which obviously would be an absolute disaster as this is the reason Dick is even in the NBA.

From the looks of it right NOW, looks like it was simply the former which is a massive relief. I believe the G-League training wasn't really set up for him to put up big numbers or dominate - he was specifically getting the shots that he would get in the big boy team and not too much more. Still should have done better if he was physically ready, but that's the process, and maybe preps him for his role now.

Here's still hoping for the best, but just watching him play with confidence offensively the last two games has allayed so many fears about his development. He looks like what we thought we drafted. Back to normal programming for now.

[SpezNc]

2 solid games from Gradey. Hopefully this is a good trend for him.

If I am not mistaken if Gradey hit his next 3, his 3 pt shooting will be over 30%. Psychologically this would be massive for his confidence IMO.

Must be hard for a shooter to see his 3 pt% below 30%

I did not do the calculation therefore I could be off but considering his overall low sample and the fact he is pretty close to 30% after NYK game, I am fairly confident that if he hit his next shot, his 3 pts % will go above 30%.

Obviously he might also miss a couple back to back but my point is that if he continue hitting the 3, his 3 pts might skyrocket quickly .

Let’s face he barely played. Therefore his stats has yet to normalize. We should see a positive regression.