The Toronto Raptors are not at the top of anyone's list for the most interesting teams next season.
It's understandable in the big picture. Toronto, despite being a large market, lags well behind other large American cities in terms of media spotlight. They also just underwent a 25-win season, with no immediate prospects of building into a contending team in the Eastern Conference.
Yet that blind eye overlooks the potential upside of their young core, even as RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and Scottie Barnes all had career years last season but had precious little time playing together. That blindness has also trickled down to the potential fourth member of that core, sophomore wing Gradey Dick.
ESPN completely ignored Gradey Dick
ESPN's Jeremy Woo, a draft expert who tends to keep tabs on younger player in the NBA, recently wrote a piece on the 10 most interesting second-year players heading into next season. Some names you would expect lead the way, including Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren, a pair of future All-Stars who battled for Rookie of the Year last season.
A name that doesn't appear anywhere is Gradey Dick, who is poised for an important (and dare I say interesting) campaign with the Toronto Raptors. The 13th overall pick in the 2023 Draft out of Kansas, the second-year wing is in contention to start for the Raptors as early as opening night if he can beat out Bruce Brown Jr. for the role in training camp.
Gradey Dick first cracked the 30 minute mark in a single game on February 5th. From there, over the final 32 games of the season, Dick shot 39.9 percent from 3-point range and hit a total of 69 triples. Only 26 players shot at least 39 percent from deep and hit more 3-pointers than Dick, and he had 27 more triples over that span than the next-best rookie, Brandin Podziemski.
The Raptors' upside this season on offense will be determined by how much shooting they can surround Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl with, and Gradey Dick is their best avenue to finding that shooting. He is also just 20 years old, with mountains of upside. He has the potential to be one of the best shooters in the entire league, and with the size (6'6") to not be completely overwhelmed on defense. If he takes a major step forward this season, not only will the Raptors be better this year, they could have a crucial piece to add to their core.
Now, just because he looks like an interesting player from one perspective, it doesn't mean he is more interesting than the rest of his class necessarily. But there are two problems to merely waiving it away. First, the article took time to mention some players who didn't make the list for one reason or the other; it's not that Gradey Dick didn't make the Top 10, it's that he didn't even make the honorable mentions!
The second issue is that the potential for Gradey Dick to be a long-term starter for the Raptors should not only propel him into the honorable mentions, but above some of the names on the list as well. GG Jackson is a chuckster who got hot on an injury-plagued Grizzlies team last season and is now buried behind other on-ball players who are now healthy like Ja Morant and Desmond Bane. Cam Whitmore doesn't have a path to minutes on a healthy Houston Rockets team. Ausar Thompson would be interesting if he wasn't on one of the worst-shooting teams in modern league history and got a mention more because the Detroit Pistons hired a shooting coach. Anthony Black ranked 6th and is more likely to be traded than to become a starter.
Gradey Dick is perhaps the best shooter in his draft class and is on a team that is not yet fully formed. There is plenty of intrigue and upside to his upcoming season. Perhaps every fan base in the league has a bone to pick on who made the list and who didn't, but Gradey Dick should have been mentioned. It's merely one more sign that the national media is overlooking the Raptors and the season -- and future -- that awaits them.