Ja'Kobe Walter a bright spot for Raptors, Gradey Dick not so much

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It was not a surprise to hear Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic speak glowingly of Gradey Dick last week, hours after revealing Dick would miss the remaining nine days of the season due to injury.

Rajakovic is not one to talk negatively about his players, he’s as positive as it gets and tries to highlight what went right, rather than otherwise when discussing individual players (he’s far more willing to do the opposite when it comes to the team as a whole). And the coach was enthusiastic about Dick last season after the then rookie showed all kinds of flashes late in the lost campaign after embarking on a workout plan that included lots of time in the gym and some game reps as a top option for Raptors 905.

“I think it started last summer when he put a very huge amount of work during the course of the whole summer. He started the season extremely well and I’m really proud of that aspect of this past season,” Rajakovic said of Dick.

Dick’s sophomore campaign was a mixed bag and a bit of a polar opposite to Year 1. This time around he peaked early, as Rajakovic alluded to, averaging 18.8 points on 49% shooting in five October games. Though his shooting dipped to 39% in 12 November contests, Dick still averaged 17.8 points and 2.5 assists. It was 16.7 points a game in December, but just 11 the rest of the way and he shot about 41% from December through February, all while struggling mightily on defence, getting targeted relentlessly by opponents. Dick works hard on that end, but has limitations that were exploited.

Rajakovic said he was realistic about what to expect from a player coming off only one NCAA season and one in the NBA.

“Now, to expect from a second-year guy, from a 20-year-old player to maintain that same level over the course of 82 games, I did not have those illusions. I believe that he’s going to be putting in another great summer this year and be able to go for a longer stretch in the next season,” Rajakovic said. “So, I’m a big believer that his next year is going to be even better than this accumulation of the work he had this year.”

It will be interesting to see how Dick slots in when Brandon Ingram, Toronto’s most talented player, finally debuts in the Fall.

Dick played better when the Raptors were without key players like Immanuel Quickley or RJ Barrett, and it could make sense then to let Dick be an offensive driver of a second group, perhaps with Scottie Barnes and Jamal Shead helping make up for some of the defensive limitations.

But there will be a long summer to speculate over things like that.

In the present, on the other hand, the team’s other top wing prospect, Ja’Kobe Walter, who is 10 months younger than Dick, had an extremely encouraging year. Many rookies would not have provided much if they got hurt multiple times and Walter went down in training camp, setting him back and then re-injured his shoulder nearly immediately upon returning, banged it up again not long after that and suffered a different injury last month that cost him some games.

Through it all, Walter showed flashes at both ends of the floor, and he’s been a bright light down the stretch, hitting 41.8% of his three-point attempts over his last 16 games (including half of his last 36 attempts) while also creating his own shots and playing stout defence (12 steals over his last six games while putting a lot of pressure on opponents). He’s also shown an ability to get to the free throw line (something he excelled at as a freshman at Baylor) and has hit 31-of-33 from the stripe over those 16 games.

Getting Dick with the 13th pick in 2023 seemed like decent work, but it’s looking like nabbing Walter 19th a year later in a draft pegged to be a lot worse quality-wise might have been a steal (as was getting Shead 45th).

Given Ingram’s long injury history and the fact both Barnes and Barrett have struggled to get to 60 games played each of the last two years, it’s possible both Walter and Dick could be called on a lot next season. Walter’s significant defensive edge and more advanced offensive repertoire could make him Rajakovic’s first choice unless Dick makes a significant jump.

“A lot of work that he’s putting in. Very coachable player, he picks up on a lot of details, a lot of stuff that we’re teaching him offensively, defensively,” Rajakovic said when asked why Walter was starting to surge.

“He’s been putting a lot of work in his shot, making sure he’s shooting on balance and as you can see his percentages are rising. He also added some eight, nine pounds of mass is getting bigger, stronger, which really helps him with contact offensively and defensively and he’s just fearless on both ends, he’s not shying away of picking up full-court the primary guys on the opposing teams he can play with a lot of force pretty much every single night.”