The San Antonio Spurs find themselves in the bottom four of the NBA. This means there are some great odds at the top pick in this year’s draft. While that likely means a top-4 pick, you should still be prepared for potential trade-downs or if some chaos occurs during the lottery selection. That means exploring some choices outside the top 4 or 5 spots and this includes Kansas forward Gradey Dick.
The 6-foot-8, 205-pound wing is a professional shooter and possibly the best one in this draft. He shoots well off movement, knows how to relocate when his teammates drive and makes himself available for open catch-and-shoot triples. Dick has a great size for a floor-spacing wing. He can also take some defenders off the dribble to get to spots inside the arc as well. Here are his stats through 16 games this season.
- 14.3 PPG, 1.5 SPG, 1.9 APG, 5.3 RPG
- 46.2 FG%, 47.2 3P%, 82.4 FT%
- 20.8 PER, 126.2 ORtg, 94.7 DRtg
Gradey Dick Breakdown
As you can see from some of these numbers, Gradey Dick could instantly help an offense that is in need of gravity-attracting shooters. He can create some shots for himself with simple dribble drives and hit teammates on live dribble passes. It cannot be stressed enough how good of a shooter he is on volume — he takes 5.6 triples a game.
KU used Oklahoma’s fear of giving Gradey Dick a shot to pull off the comeback. He was a huge part of the comeback without scoring a point. A thread, starting with the play that Bill Self ran three times in the final minutes. @NowonAirr pic.twitter.com/CMBlVsrN13
— CJ Moore (@CJMooreHoops) January 11, 2023
Where Dick will have to improve is on defense. He is not a total sieve as he knows where he is supposed to be and uses his strength when he can. However, he will have to get stronger and a little quicker to contend with the forwards at the NBA level. A potential swing skill for him will be tightening up his handle and becoming more of a playmaker for his teammates.
The Jayhawk freshman should hear his name called in the lottery this year. Dick’s shooting makes up for a multitude of sins in his game (mostly on defense). Fortunately, he doesn’t have a whole lot of sins to correct or make up for in this case. That’s one of the reasons he’s going to get picked so early in this draft.