Grading the Raptors Offseason So Far: Part 1 – We All Need the D(raft)

Welcome to part 1 of a series going over what has been, if nothing else, an interesting offseason so far.

Since the last few posts have been pretty wordy, I decided i’ll break this review up into a few sections i.e. the draft, the free agency signings and yes, losing Fred VanVleet for nothing. We’ll begin with the draft and work our way over to the other sections.

With the 13th pick, the Raptors select…

**Gradey Dick (6’6 SG/SF)**

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So full disclosure: Keyonte George was the guy I was hoping for in the draft. Part of that was due to the team’s need for creation. Part of that was his strong showing in the combine.

Most of all, George seemed liked he would be available at 13 whereas Gradey Dick did not. I’ve talked about Gradey [in a video about the 2023 draft](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBS78Vh6WKQ) selections that may be available for the Raptors but to summarize: Dick was a top 10 talent headed into the draft who seemed like he’d be off the board due to him being arguably the best shooter in this draft, an underrated playmaker with great court vision shooting 48/40/85 on a high volume of 3s and just a generally versatile shot creator. All of this and without even touching on the intangibles, as he’s a generally likeable presence on social media.

In short, not only was he a terrific talent but he wasn’t the type of player the Raptors typically draft, outside of his aforementioned personality. You look at who the Raptors have drafted since O.G. Anunoby and most of them have been defense-first, lengthy and athletic non-shooters like Christian Koloko, Scottie Barnes and Dalano Banton. Malachi Flynn – who shot 84% from the line andmade about 37% of his college 3s – is really the only exception to this and that picked happened during an exceptional draft i.e. the year that March Madness was cancelled due to the CO-VID 19 pandemic and scouting in general was messy due to said pandemic. Not to mention…Flynn’s shooting has not translated to the NBA level and it’s an open question if the Raptors even bother extending him this offseason.

As such, it was pleasant surprise that they grabbed Dick at 13.

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With his all-around amazing shooting likely to translate to the NBA, Dick fills in a major hole for the Raptors in the immediate and near future. He can bring some offensive firepower off the bench – one assumes Trent will be starting at the 2 if he remains on the roster – and his playmaking, while not necessarily a substitute for a point guard, if nothing else, it is a welcome respite from the iso-heavy offense of last season and should help keep the ball moving because Dick is a willing passer, albeit not a passive overall player as he will shoot his shot if he has a good look.

That said…I do want to temper expectations for his rookie ceiling and his general ceiling, the former because, regardless of what you think about it, the team lost Fred and his gravity i.e. the double teams thrown his way will be directed elsewhere and statistically speaking, Fred got double teamed a lot.

As for the latter, it’s a bit unfair to expect a rookie to come in and fix the many, many problems this team still has. This team still lacks notable ballhandlers and the shooting is wholly lacking, not to mention Gradey, while not a small player nor lacking in length with a 6’9 wingspan – at around 205 lbs, he hasn’t had the time and regiment to get the “NBA body” and will likely take some time before he gets said physique. Unless Scottie and Siakam take notable leaps – or in Siakam’s case he returns to something closer to his 2019/20 form where he shot 36% on 6 3s – and Trent shakes off his streaky shooting, the starting lineup alone is going to struggle to get their shots off if opposing teams pack the paint.

Gradey Dick is an amazing shooting talent but he’s not fixing this team’s offense on his own and it’s not fair to Dick to expect him to do so, let alone in his rookie season. And that’s to say nothing of the draft comparisons i’ve seen which further compound some already lofty expectations.

The one that’s stuck out the most is Reggie Miller. While i’d say this makes more sense than the other common comparison of Kevin Huerter i.e. both Miller and Dick are solid shooters who can function as a secondary playmaker, we’re talking about comparing a young college player to one of the best playoff elevators ever and one of the greatest players to never win a ring, albeit Miller certainly go closer than some of the other names on that list with that 2002 title run. But I digress.

While it’d be great if he turned into a player of Miller’s caliber, as a general expectation for what Dick can be, it’s a lot to put such heavy expectations on a 19 year-old who’s yet to play a day in the league even if said comparison is generally accurate. All of this is to say that, as good as Gradey is, going into this season with sky-high expectations of what he’ll do or become overlooks the situation he’s heading into and the opportunities he’s going to have.

For now, it’d be great if he became a player of the same caliber as Bojan Bogdanovic. Anything higher than that – such as becoming a player on Miller’s level or the level of recent shooting guards selected at 13 such as Donovan Mitchell and Devin Booker – is a bonus, and a welcome one at that if he does become an All-Star/All-NBA talent.

Before we move on, i’llbriefly touch on the Summer League, and I do mean briefly because the Summer League is not conducive to showing off Gradey’s strengths (let alone the next player we’ll talk about).

Or at the least, it didn’t really lead to Dick showing off his ball skills that got him drafted because in Summer League, Gradey showed off a lot more skills on offense that he was noted for in high school than his time in Kansas, namely as a slasher. He also showed off a stronger defensive presence and was able to keep up with opposing players, albeit he did get bullied by larger players aka. the “Need to get the NBA body” problem just about every rookie has going in to the league. Still, the effort on defense was there – Dick wasn’t known for his defense in college but he was noted for being high energy on that end – and it gives one hope that he can become at least a neutral defender in time.

All-around, this was a terrific pick that i’m hoping to see more of come the start of the season.

Also this suit goes hard, that alone should be enough to give this selection a high grade for Gradey.

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*Grade(y) – A*

**Markquis Nowell (5’7 PG)**

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While technically an undrafted free agent, I am going to count Nowell in this section.

Going into the draft, Markquis had two knocks against him that caused him to be left out: Size and age. Nowell is 5’7 and that will always be a problem. No matter how good a defender or playmaker you are, when you’re below 6 feet in height, larger opposing players are going to go after you and they are going to score on you.

To put this into perspective: Nowell is tied for 10th shortest player in NBA history and amongst the names who stuck around in the league who were his height or shorter, there’s only 3 notable names you’ll find that played more than 3 seasons:

1. The shortest NBA player ever and a former Raptors player in 5’3 Muggsy Bogues (1987-2001)
2. Dunk Contest winner 5’6 Spud Webb (1985-1998)
3. Fellow undrafted PG and journeyman 5’7 Earl Boykins (1998-2008, 2009-2012)

Greg Grant also stuck it out for 6 seasons but he didn’t have anything of note outside of that. It should go without saying but it is very difficult for sub-6′ guards to find a place in the league, let alone thrive, especially as the NBA is currently moving into what can be best described as the “jumbo PG” era with larger points such as Anthony Black and Amen Thompson, among other names, entering the league. It’s getting to the point where non-established guards who are 6′-6’2 are struggling to make their way into the league or are overlooked in favor of the Dalen Terrys of the draft. Couple this with Markquis being on the older side as he’s already 23 and it’s not hard to see why younger talents with more perceived upside were chosen above him.

Having said that, to pretend like Nowell wasn’t one of the best point guards in college last season would be to do him a disservice. Markquis’ talent is impossible to ignore. He’s a terrific ballhandler with a ton of heart and elite efficiency as playmaker. A creative passer that knows how to orchestrate an offense and a solid defender, while his height definitely means he’ll be picked on by opposing players on offense, Nowell has strong hands and can cause turnovers just as easily as he can convert those opportunities into points, be it for himself or his team.

You’ve probably seen that viral clip of him making a no-look pass versus Michigan but Markquis was doing just about everything in his tournament record-breaking 19 assist double-double masterpiece, including stripping the ball away in the final seconds to permanently seal a 3-point game away, culminating with a game-winning layup. While not a 3-point specialist, 89% from the line is indicative that Markquis is on the right track to having his shooting translate to the NBA, provided he can create the necessary space to get said shot off.

Markquis Nowell probably won’t become the next Calvin Murphy (the shortest ever All-Star/Hall of Famer unless you’re including the ABA’s All-Stars). He might not become the team’s next starting point guard – though one certainly hopes he’ll be a key piece of the rotation in time at the very least – and he isn’t a Fred replacement as we’ll get into next time. Who he is, as a prospect, makes him very easy to root for and he will likely dominate the G League in the meantime as we see what player he’ll become. A great free agent pickup and one that leaves little to complain about given the low opportunity cost.

No we’re not talking about the Summer League for Nowell like we did for Dick, that team couldn’t have been constructed worse to cater to his strengths, which is to say…it wasn’t outside of Moses Brown being a great lob threat.

*Grade – B+*

**Overall**

This is the part where we have to at the very least acknowledge how…inactive the Raptors front office was during this draft and mark them down for not doing much else on draft night. Because frankly…this shouldn’t have been all they did.

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Whomever they were hoping to drop and snatch for cheap (Leonard Miller, Rayan Rupert, etc.), whatever deals they may have tried to work out behind the scenes, the fact of the matter is that they only ended up with a steal at 13 and didn’t select a single other player. Given how many deals were made on or prior to draft night, it doesn’t seem farfetched to expect that this front office could have made some sort of move to pick up another team-friendly contract via a draftee and their rookie deal, especially when they knew:

1. This team is going to get very expensive very soon between the 2023 free agents they had to re-sign and potential extensions including those for O.G., Precious and Pascal, assuming they were willing to sign it and were given a good offer
2. They were entering free agency with 2 key free agents (If I recall, Gary had opted in prior to the draft) and…
3. If one of them left (Spoilers, one of them did), they’d have a huge hole at either point or center, and if both left the team would be in serious trouble
4. Even if both were retained, the guard rotation/logjam at forward positions remains a point of weakness and there were plenty of available guards in the late 1st/early 2nd range
5. At the time, it wasn’t clear if the Raptors would have much, if any, of the MLE to fulfill said PG hole and the BAE was not going to be enough to nab a capable backup guard to Fred
6. Malachi Flynn is probably on his way out of the league unless he has a huge year so he was not the solution
7. Did I mention the changes to the CBA pertaining to tax-paying teams? Long story short, it gets rough even once you get to the 1st apron.

Getting both Nowell and Dick is great! But it makes you wonder why the Raptors didn’t try to make some other moves to acquire a later first or early second given some of the talent that dropped into that area, especially in light of the rumors of the Raptors taking calls for Pascal Siakam as he enters his final year, possibly looking for a supermax deal.

The Raptors have some young talent between the promising Scottie Barnes, the exciting Gradey Dick – even Precious Achiuwa has flashed major upside inbetween his many moments of frustration – and they’d certainly see at least one rookie or rookie deal player come their way if Pascal is truly on his way out, but even if one was going to retool around a core of O.G./Scottie/Dick/Precious/Poeltl (or whomever Jakob is traded for at the deadline if he asks out – Dereck Lively, maybe?), the team would be a lot closer to fulfilling said retool and this team’s needs were they to have offloaded one of their veterans in favor of an intriguing young player like one of those aforementioned names.

So yes, Gradey Dick was a good choice and Nowell is a no-brainer, easy to root for guy to get for practically nothing.

You just wish they didn’t put the phone down after they made their selection at 13.

*Grade – B-*