The Gradey Dick Thread Part 3

[tsherkin]

He is getting to the FT line at a crazy rate. I don't think his body will be able to keep that up but it's a good sign for what he should do later on.

As others mentioned he does have shooting gravity and opposing teams stay aware of him

Yes, there's a basically 0% chance that he maintains a .558 FTr. That's, like, James Harden-level. It's based on 3 games so far, which of course makes it not really worth considering at the moment. His draw rate has increased year to year, and was .240 last year, so a solid FTr isn't out of the question, just not what he's doing right now, heh.

Nice to see him being aggressive, though.

[Psubs]

He is getting to the FT line at a crazy rate. I don't think his body will be able to keep that up but it's a good sign for what he should do later on.

As others mentioned he does have shooting gravity and opposing teams stay aware of him

Yes, there's a basically 0% chance that he maintains a .558 FTr. That's, like, James Harden-level. It's based on 3 games so far, which of course makes it not really worth considering at the moment. His draw rate has increased year to year, and was .240 last year, so a solid FTr isn't out of the question, just not what he's doing right now, heh.

Nice to see him being aggressive, though.

Ya, less mid-range shots and taking it all the way to the hole or pass it up. I guess his added height and strength is helping him taking contact.

[MEDIC]

Decent game by Gradey tonight, but this needs to be his baseline moving forward.

I think 105%TS will be a pretty hard baseline.

But yeah, this is the role he needs to play for us.

I didn't know what his TS% was. That's pretty crazy.

His level of effort, aggression, decision making, and assertiveness was on point.

[tsherkin]

Ya, less mid-range shots and taking it all the way to the hole or pass it up. I guess his added height and strength is helping him taking contact.

He was showing the willingness last year, which was a good start. And he made a major improvement in his draw rate from year 1 into year 2, which was a good sign. So we'll see what comes. And of course, as I was talking with Atl, he had that game against Milwaukee, hehe.

[Dexjackson]

In no world should Gradey be playing double the minutes of Battle.

Agreed. Battle isn't a great defender. Maybe average but he's still much better than Gradey. Our defense just crumbles when Gradey is out there. Gradey just bites too much to every move which makes him give up driving lanes time and time again. I find Gradey and IQ to be similar defenders (weak, overly reactive, and tend to reach too much). Gradey at least tries but you can tell he's limited athletically moving side to side. IQ I'm more disappointed in. He just looks lazy and disengaged on the defensive side.

[Grew]

Offense was humming when he was out there last night. Defense didn't crumble into nothing. One of our teams best overall performances of the year, and we didn't see any Ochai until garbage time. Gradey is the best of the wing depth and it's not even close.

[MEDIC]

Gradey is the best of the wing depth and it's not even close.

Until he gets more consistent, I think its hard to make this arguement. He goes from looking like he is completely unplayable one night to looking like a really good bench scorer the next.

One thing I am starting to notice about him is that he looks better playing with and against bench players. It seems like when he is playing with the starters, he looks kinda lost. Like he doesn't know what he should be doing & is less assertive because he is on the floor with the big dogs.

When he is on the floor with bench players, he looks like he looks more confident & assertive. Especially against other bench players.

I guess it makes sense to some degree. As a starter, he doesn't really compliment the starting lineup. He is a scorer at heart, but isn't as good a scorer as anyone in the SL beside Yak. His defense doesn't compliment the starting lineup & he can't get his full game off when he is playing with the likes of BI, Scottie, RJ & to a lesser degree Quick. His skills are redundant with that group. Battle & Ochai compliment those guys more because they are true role players. They know what they excel at & stick to those roles.

He is kind of a awkward fit and an awkward player at this point. Especially with this group. I like his game when he plays the way he did last night, but we don't see that version of Gradey often enough.

Hopefully he evolves & finds his role & starts to excel at it.

[Grew]

Gradey is the best of the wing depth and it's not even close.

Until he gets more consistent, I think its hard to make this arguement. He goes from looking like he is completely unplayable one night to looking like a really good bench scorer the next.

One thing I am starting to notice about him is that he looks better playing with and against bench players. It seems like when he is playing with the starters, he looks kinda lost. Like he doesn't know what he should be doing & is less assertive because he is on the floor with the big dogs.

When he is on the floor with bench players, he looks like he looks more confident & assertive. Especially against other bench players.

I guess it makes sense to some degree. As a starter, he doesn't really compliment the starting lineup. He is a scorer at heart, but isn't as good a scorer as anyone in the SL beside Yak. His defense doesn't compliment the starting lineup & he can't get his full game off when he is playing with the likes of BI, Scottie, RJ & to a lesser degree Quick. His skills are redundant with that group. Battle & Ochai compliment those guys more because they are true role players. They know what they excel at & stick to those roles.

He is kind of a awkward fit and an awkward player at this point. Especially with this group. I like his game when he plays the way he did last night, but we don't see that version of Gradey often enough.

Hopefully he evolves & finds his role & starts to excel at it.

You just made my argument for me here. Ochai and Battle are true role players who always will be. Even in their last summer league appearances, they didn't assert themselves as anything more. Ochai is an average defender, who gives above average effort, Battle is a shooter.

Gradey is leaps and bounds more talented than those guys. Jakobe is as well but he hasn't gotten as much opportunity, he also looked good last night.

If I'm our coach I want to get the most out of my most talented guys or I'm not doing my job. Plugging Ochai in there to pretend like he makes an impact defensively anywhere near the level that Gradey makes offensively would be mal practice. I need the talent to figure out their roles and fit together. Battle and Ochai are more situational.

So even if it is a bit awkward. The whole starting lineup is a bit awkward anyways. It has to be Gradey first and foremost when it comes to the wing depth. He needs 20 min a night. The quick hooks after 5 minutes because he made a mistake on D is a large reason why he has looked bad in some of these games. Gradey definitely needs to stay engaged on D and bring the hustle plays, but I think he's earned working through a few mistakes and some awkward lineups. As long as he gives that effort, he should be getting the minutes as first priority of those guys. I think Darko is starting to see this, hence why we didn't see Ochai last night.

[canz55]

The one thing Gradey has that might keep him in the league is his sneaky quick first step.

It's not going to be his defense, rebounding, on the ball dribbling or even his shooting. It's going to be his ability to use his gravity to burn by guys and make the right play.

[ATLTimekeeper]

Maybe for you. For a lot of us it's just early season results for a young player.

Great, wonderful. You're a guru.

Anyway. his offense was very nice against the Bucks. Maybe he'll be able to build on that going forward.

I'm not alone here One game got his numbers back to where they've always been, because we're in small sample land and it is literally meaningless when someone is worse than usual or way better than usual.

[tsherkin]

I'm not alone here One game got his numbers back to where they've always been, because we're in small sample land and it is literally meaningless when someone is worse than usual or way better than usual.

Yes, I didn't actually suggest that his performance leading into the Bucks game was going to be the norm, and did acknowledge the sample size and so forth...

[dagger]

I think the whole team is learning their roles. Now, it's starting to come together. As Darko mentioned, with the early starts at home because of the Jays, there weren't even shoot-arounds, but now they are getting full practices and it makes a difference.

The team now heads out on a five game road trip, with a couple of tough opponents - Philly on the second night of a back to back, plus assume Cleveland is a whole lot better with its starters returning - and a few beatable ones, like Atlanta without Trae, Nets and Pacers. Then back for a similar mix of good and not so good opponents. The Raptors ought to be able to hold on to .500 and perhaps go slightly above by the end of November as the guys start to find their cohesion. You know the saying, Know your role. And for Gradey, finding comfort in that role is part of that process. (So far, there is one huge difference from November of last season - no one is seriously injured.)