LAS VEGAS — Toronto Raptors swingman Gradey Dick says the name with a deep sense of resignation.
“Yeah. It was Jaden McDaniels,” Dick said at the end of the Raptors’ first official practice ahead of Las Vegas Summer League.
Dick, just done with his rookie season, was thinking back to the worst game of the season. Check that — the worst game in franchise history. The Raptors lost 133-85 to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team’s biggest margin of defeat ever. It was one of six times after March 1 that the Raptors lost by more than 20 points. During that span, the Raptors, missing several of their best players, went 3-20 with a minus-14.5 net rating. The Detroit Pistons were the penultimate team in that category, at minus-10.6.
As the Raptors had to play without Scottie Barnes, as well as Jakob Poeltl, Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett (among others) for a significant time, Dick crept up the pecking order within the Raptors’ attack. And, so McDaniels, who was Second Team All-Defense, was guarding Dick.
“You’ve always got to think about the positives,” Dick said. “I’m a rookie being guarded by a defender like that. To see that early on in my career, it’s huge for me.”
Dick started 16 of his final 18 games of the year because of those absences. While his efficiency took a hit — Dick had a true shooting percentage, which factors in the extra importance of 3s as well as free throws, of 67.2 between the Pascal Siakam trade in mid-January and the end of February, but that cratered to 52 percent the rest of the way — Dick is hoping the experience helps him prepare for his second season. He also had some nice moments in that run, hitting at least three 3s in a game seven times after doing so six times in his previous 38 games.
He probably won’t look back fondly on many of those games, including that Minnesota game in which he posted a minus-37. With Gary Trent Jr., gone, however, those moments might compose Dick for a starting spot that could be open for him.
With the Raptors starting summer league on Saturday with a game against Oklahoma City, Dick chatted one-on-one with The Athletic about his summer to date, the changes the Raptors have made and the lessons of his first season.
(This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)
Take me through what you’ve done since the end of the season. The season ends, you take some time off, and then what?
I went straight to my family. I was looking forward to that a lot. It was a long season. Seeing my brothers and sisters who couldn’t make it to many games, it was nice to be home with them and spend quality time with my family. And then eventually, getting up to Lawrence, Kansas, back where the University of Kansas is at, going through workouts there. Actually, coach Ivo (Simović, a Raptors assistant who worked closely with Dick last year) got to come down with some other coaches and put me and Ochai (Agbaji) through some workouts while (we) were in Kansas.
I know we constantly asked you last year what you were learning. What were the biggest lessons once you were able to remove yourself from the season? Was there something that sort of crystallized there in terms of what you needed to do to hit the ground running this year?
I think it always goes back to the things Garrett Temple said and taught me and the advice that he gave me really at the beginning of last season. And that was just, “You’re going to go through ups and downs in all seasons. It’s a long season, 82 games. So you’re going to have your ups and your downs. … You’ve got to kind of stay even and just work every single day and really stack days.” … Eventually, it was working for me toward the end of the season.
I don’t want to relive the month of March. We know what happened. We know who was out. And it led to a much bigger role than the Raptors thought you would have at any point last year. Looking back at that, how much did that help you and what did you learn about yourself?
It was tremendous. Obviously it was unfortunate, the guys being out. But at the end of the day, talking with my parents, my dad, my brothers and also always going back to Garrett Temple, it’s always just preparation. Whatever comes your way, just be prepared for your moment. And I feel like I tried to prepare myself day in, day out, as much as I could that when it finally came where I was starting to get more minutes and eventually (I was in the) starting role at the end, it was kind of like I was used to it all.
Did you feel like you were making it onto the other team’s scouting reports? Is there any way to feel that? Did anything change about what you were feeling during that stretch?
Throughout the games, you can kind of tell when different matchups are on you and who you have to guard — not only their scouts but our scouts and going through the matchups. … I feel like the most was probably that Timberwolves game in Minnesota. I think that was the one game we had the most people out and I had some of their (best) defenders guarding me, not letting me breathe.
Yeah, that was a rough one.
It was. I remember that first quarter, I was like, “Yeah, that’s why they’re regarded as one of the top defenses in the league.” At the end of the day, yes, it’s rough, but it’s a compliment in some ways that that work’s paying off.
So other than the mental part, physically in terms of your game specifically, are there any areas that you’re like, “I need to be building toward this for next year?”
As a young player, I’m trying to improve every part of my game, really. That’s why the summer is so great with coach Ivo and Darko (Rajaković). I’m going through workouts in Toronto where I’m going against guys that I’m playing with and against. It’s nice to try to improve stuff like my defense, where I can play both sides of the ball, and not being only regarded as a shooter and opening up. I think that comes with more minutes, too. Toward the end of the season I was fortunate to show that I can be more than a shooter. And I think just keeping on improving that and not being content with that is huge.
Between, you, Ja’Kobe (Walter, the Raptors’ first-round pick), Immanuel Quickley, you guys are gathering some movement shooting. How do you envision this team evolving from what Darko was trying to build offensively last year?
I think first and foremost, what’s really exciting about it is just how good of people they are, not just on the court. We come in here and we don’t really know each other at the start. … Ja’Kobe, I’m just meeting, and it feels like me and him have been friends for years now. It’s good we have people like that because then it translates to the court and it does help you hit the ground running. When you go in the season, you kind of know what each other does already. With us as position players, and me and Ja’Kobe as more like spatial shooters who can space out the court for Quick and RJ (Barrett) and Scottie, it’s nice to see that we’re working that early. Iron sharpens iron, every single day.
(Photo: Cole Burston / Getty Images)