Gradey Dick, during his rookie and sophomore campaigns, had established himself as a solid rotation piece quite early. But in his third season, the standards have risen for the Toronto Raptors. They are no longer a lottery team building for the future. They are now a playoff-caliber team that intends to improve its record against the best teams in the association.
With the Raptors having different goals this season than the past two, Dick has fallen out of favor in head coach Darko Rajakovic's rotation for most of the season. But on Sunday, Dick made a difference, scoring 10 points in just 13 minutes of play, and most importantly, he impressed Rajakovic to the point where he called him a nailed-on member of the rotation from this point forward.
“He’s in the rotation now. That should not change. There is a high expectation for him. He needs to put a lot of work in, because he’s a very, very important player for us. I have huge trust in him,” Rajakovic said in his postgame presser, via Omer Osman on X (formerly Twitter).
Darko on how Gradey handled being in-and-out of the rotation:
“He handled it in the best possible way. He went back and he put a lot of work. He was going back at night to shoot. He was coming early and was the first one in the gym every morning to get shots, to put the work… pic.twitter.com/Y8AhrLrwfW
— Omer Osman (@OmerOsman200) March 9, 2026
Gradey Dick handled Raptors demotion with grace
The Raptors drafted Dick with the 13th overall selection in 2023, and he started 71 games across his first two seasons in the NBA. This season, he's only started in one game.
Some young players would have taken this to heart; they would have been demoralized which then feeds a negative feedback loop. But this is not the case for Dick, as the Raptors head coach mentioned.
“He handled it in the best possible way. He went back and he put a lot of work. He was going back at night to shoot. He was coming early and was the first one in the gym every morning to get shots, to put the work in,” Rajakovic added.
