The Raptors didn’t trade up after all, but still drafted a player to spark the offence. Kansas Jayhawk Gradey Dick is coming to Toronto.
Masai Ujiri and the Raptors organization knew that the offence needed sprucing up. Picking 13th was always going to be tricky, but Kansas guard Gradey Dick did enough in his lone NCAA campaign to convince Toronto that he is their man.
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Raptors Select Gradey Dick in 13th
Dick will have played only one season in NCAA. On the topic of tricky situations, his was one as well. The Jayhawks entered the most recent college tournament as defending champions. Their road through the Big 12 was strong, going 28-8. After handling Howard in a lopsided 96-68 contest in the tournament’s opening salvo Arkansas got the better of them 72-71 in round two.
As for Dick himself, he was second on the team with 14.1 points per game, behind only Jalen Wilson who scored 20.1. Dick wasn’t a bad rebounder either, collecting 5.1 balls off the glass. With only 1.4 assists, he’s definitely a shooter rather than a facilitator.
The Raptors need all the offensive help they can get. For the 2022-2023 season, the club finished 24th in points scored (112.9), 27th in field goal efficiency (45.9 per cent), and ranked 28th in shooting from beyond the arc (33.5 per cent).
Drafting Gradey Dick is but one order of business the Raptors need to attend to. In addition to the subsequent rounds of the draft, there is the matter of Fred VanVleet becoming a free agent – technically Toronto can offer him a deal so that he stays – and a new and first-time head coach in Darko Rajakovic.
