The Gradey Dick Thread Part 3

[DelAbbot]

Why didn't we sign Austin Reeves undrafted. Could have avoided this

[Grew]

I don't understand Darko at all. He's playing 4 young wings off the bench behind RJ and Ingram. How does he expect these guys to find a rhythm and produce. Gradey had one good game, now battle has had one. It will be eratic production from these guys until these guys are given opportunity and defined roles.

Ochai and Battle are the least dynamic and easiest to fit in "1 skill roles". Battle shooting, Ochai defense. Doesn't mean they are better players than Gradey or Jakobe.

Darko has little to no clue how to get something out of Gradey when we have so many other guys that need the ball. Last night, right before Gradey got benched, he curled a screen for a dunk, then next possession looked to come off a pindown, their whole team reacted to the incoming screen, and Scottie got an open driving lane to get to the line. Then we benched Gradey for the rest of the game. Our offense was TRASH, until Battle came in and brought back some spacing. Jack then proceeds to glaze battle about how his gravity as a shooter opens things up for other guys. The same gravity Gradey showed the possession before he got benched for no reason at all. I'm glad Battle had a breakout game but a large part of it was the fact he's not even on scouting reports, they had to adjust once he started making shots.

Ochai has been Darko's favourite so far, but he's been garbage. Darko doesn't even know what to do with these rotations. It's starting to look like he has no idea what winning looks like in this league. He can develop guys but once he's tasked with putting out a rotation that can win games he has looked inept so far.

I'll give Darko some time to figure it out, but pretty soon Bobby is going to have to make a deal and simplify things for him. We need a big for one or two of these wings ASAP. Darko is about to kill Ochai, Gradey and Jakobes careers trying to win via internal competition. None of these guys has gotten going. Young players need opportunity and structure that puts them in position to succeed, I'm not seeing it with his management of this logjam.

lol what do you want him to do though? There's like 30 mins available most nights to split among 4 guys. It's either trying to give them all a bit of an opportunity in more limited mins or benching 2 of them completely.

If these guys want more mins, they need to produce to earn them. Otherwise they need to wait their turn for one of Ingram or RJ to get hurt to get an opportunity.

I think you play two the the bulk of the minutes. See what you get after 3-5 games of allowing those guys to find a rhythm and play through mistakes.

I really wanted Ochai traded in the offseason because of this exact problem.

Good point though. I guess the overarching problem is Darko's whole rotational theory has been questionable across the entire team. Our offense sucks, our defense is worse, and our roster is poorly constructed.

[Grew]

Why didn't we sign Austin Reeves undrafted. Could have avoided this

Nahhh without Lebron glazing him for a couple seasons he would have never gotten going and just been another Matt Thomas for us.

[Spates]

The consensus is to overreact, as always. He hasn't been great by any means but he's demonstrated on numerous occasions that he looks good when he's utilized as more than a spot-up shooter. His defense has marginally improved. One might think it'd be a good thing to retain a player with untapped potential on a bargain contract. He still needs time to enhance his physicality and understanding of the NBA game.

[tsherkin]

The consensus is to overreact, as always. He hasn't been great by any means but he's demonstrated on numerous occasions that he looks good when he's utilized as more than a spot-up shooter. His defense has marginally improved. One might think it'd be a good thing to retain a player with untapped potential on a bargain contract. He still needs time to enhance his physicality and understanding of the NBA game.

He's cheap, we're just down on him because we're garbage so far this year. And because he hasn't made a 3 in 4 games and has been dog-ass inside the arc.

We'll see what happens over the next 10 games.

[anotherhomer]

To get the most out of Gradey he pretty much needs to be among the featured scorers whenever he's on the court as that feeds into all the elements of his game he's ideally strongest at, which is volume scoring. He's shown he can fill it up at times, like when he and RJ were the main scoring tandem last season. Not saying it was perfect, but that was the best we've got out of him before things went south as the season went on.

But that's simply gonna be tough now when there's many players who are simply better at that on this team. So Dick's right now stuck in this role as an off-ball threat he's simply not efficient enough at it right now to make up for his defense.

Luckily, Battle fills that shooting/spacing role better right now and is more advanced with his game and more physically mature so he can also hold up okay on the defensive end too.

I think there's clearly some talent there with Gradey and he does a lot in terms of hustle plays which I like, but the physical traits/defensive lapses hold him back so ultimately he's gotta shoot/score at an elite rate to make it.

i guess that sums it well....he can't play the role of JJ Reddick, and be a spacer....he needs to treated as a scorer....

why did we draft this guy

Same reason why they draft anyone, they thought he was BPA.

that's true, OKC drafted dieng ahead of Jaylen William but one person worked out, the other didn't.

[Spates]

The consensus is to overreact, as always. He hasn't been great by any means but he's demonstrated on numerous occasions that he looks good when he's utilized as more than a spot-up shooter. His defense has marginally improved. One might think it'd be a good thing to retain a player with untapped potential on a bargain contract. He still needs time to enhance his physicality and understanding of the NBA game.

He's cheap, we're just down on him because we're garbage so far this year. And because he hasn't made a 3 in 4 games and has been dog-ass inside the arc.

We'll see what happens over the next 10 games.

Yeah, I'm curious what's going on behind the scenes. I don't remember if was after the season opener or the first preseason against Boston but anyways, Darko acknowledged Gradey's play and mentioned that, to paraphrase, guys gotta find him. That hasn't happened at all the last 5 games. Despite a supposed free flowing offense the same cast of 4 are nearly exclusively tasked with creation.

Gradey has been objectively bad but he's used in a context that doesn't suit his game so naturally we only judge him by his weaknesses.

[anotherhomer]

The consensus is to overreact, as always. He hasn't been great by any means but he's demonstrated on numerous occasions that he looks good when he's utilized as more than a spot-up shooter. His defense has marginally improved. One might think it'd be a good thing to retain a player with untapped potential on a bargain contract. He still needs time to enhance his physicality and understanding of the NBA game.

he's good as a volume shooter but i'm not sure if his offense warrants that type of game

[ItsDanger]

He's in his 3rd year. It's time to produce. It's not overreacting. It's just plain reacting. His production isn't good enough and decisions are being made.

[anotherhomer]

He's in his 3rd year. It's time to produce. It's not overreacting. It's just plain reacting. His production isn't good enough and decisions are being made.

gradey is what he is

[Blazing_royale]

He's had plenty of opportunity and at this point he hasn't shown much. He needs to go.

[nikster]

He's had plenty of opportunity and at this point he hasn't shown much. He needs to go.

I actually thought he played okay today. Had a few good defensive possessions, hit some shots, moved the ball well

[Grew]

He's had plenty of opportunity and at this point he hasn't shown much. He needs to go.

I actually thought he played okay today. Had a few good defensive possessions, hit some shots, moved the ball well

Shot 50%, was a +10, 4 boards. Not really the day for Gradey hate.

[ill-Will03]

Safe to say we should have gone with Keyonte now?

[ATLTimekeeper]

He's had plenty of opportunity and at this point he hasn't shown much. He needs to go.

I actually thought he played okay today. Had a few good defensive possessions, hit some shots, moved the ball well

Shot 50%, was a +10, 4 boards. Not really the day for Gradey hate.

I watched him get doubled on the catch again. I think people that hate on Gradey are just make/miss reactionaries.

There will always be a few uncompetitive defensive possessions out of him, but he also goes hard on offense and the opposition knows exactly what they don't want to happen.

[hyper316]

I watched the game lights and focus on Gradey on defense. There was a string of 3 highlights that Gradey got beat or put of rotation leading to a bucket. He's a sieve and the weakest link. His offensive production hardly make him a neutral player.

Kinda crappy situation for Battle, career night gets the chain, next game 2 mins. What the hell is Darko sending message to the team, your performance doesn't matter, it's all about the contract/perceived value

[aminiaturebuddha]

He's had plenty of opportunity and at this point he hasn't shown much. He needs to go.

I actually thought he played okay today. Had a few good defensive possessions, hit some shots, moved the ball well

Agreed. He didn't score a lot, but was doing a lot of the little connective things really well.

Also, I love Battle and what he did the other night was fantastic, but currently the gravity that Gradey and Battle have on offence is night and day. if people watched the last two games closely, and just focused on how the defence reacts to Gradey and Battle, you'll see a big difference. The defence is always aware of where Gradey is, and sometimes two guys are at least shading his direction. That's not the case yet with Battle.

Maybe Battle will get there, now that teams around the league are starting to figure out what he's capable of. It would make things very interesting. But it hasn't happened yet. If people focus on how each player stretches the floor for their teammates, I think there'd be a better understanding of why Darko might go back to Gradey again in a game like last night.

[Clutch0z24]

George has cleared Gradey by alot now and its not even close.

[Grew]

George has cleared Gradey by alot now and its not even close.

George was top of my board but I didn't think either Gradey or Cason would drop to us.

It's not really relevant how good George is because if this board had their way we would have drafted Bufkin. Who I believe just washed out the league.

[Harcore Fenton Mun]

George has cleared Gradey by alot now and its not even close.

If Dick was playing 34 minutes, he'd have similar production. It's really about BI, and our shift to "win now".