2023 NBA Draft Team Recap: Toronto Raptors
While there was not major roster turnover this offseason for the Toronto Raptors in terms of the number of moves, there was one significant change.
Starting point guard Fred VanVleet took the bag that was offered by the Houston Rockets and was replaced by Dennis Schroder. The Raptors also re-signed trade deadline addition Jakob Poeltl, and brought in Jalen McDaniels, but the biggest addition probably came with the No. 13 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
Gradey Dick is a 6-foot-8 wing out of Kansas by way of Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita, KS.
The sharp shooter is most known for his 3-point shooting prowess and carried the label of the best shooter in this draft class by many NBA Draft pundits. He has backed this up at every level by shooting over 40% from beyond the arc in HS and doing so again in his lone season at Kansas on over 5.5 attempts per game along with 85% from the free throw line.
He didn’t quite show off the same shooting touch in his four summer league games but did cap off his time in Las Vegas with a three for five performance and back to back 20-point outings. While over half his attempts were from beyond the 3-point line in college, he did flash some ability to score from two by leveraging that shooting ability and reputation.
He is also a very high feel player that will keep the flow of the offense going and leads to a better than expected off the ball defensive player that can make rotations and be disruptive in passing lanes. He averaged just under 1.5 steals per game last season and was right on that mark during summer league.
The other notable name that came from the 2023 NBA Draft for the Raptors was the darling of March Madness, Markquis Nowell.
At just 5-foot-8 he expectedly went undrafted, but signed on with Toronto for summer league where he averaged 12 points and 6.8 assists per game and landed himself a two-way contract with the team.
While Dick’s floor spacing and high draft spot put him in position to be a contributor right away it would be surprising to see Nowell rise any higher on the depth chart than the third true point guard behind Schroder and Malachi Flynn.
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