Raptors handle Clippers in 'bittersweet' matchup against Gradey Dick

VANCOUVER — Jamal Shead has seen Gradey Dick do some impressive things. There was the time his former Toronto Raptors teammate went off for 30 points in back-to-back games early in the 2024-25 season. There was the "Chucky" costume Dick wore when he co-hosted the team’s Halloween party last year. Or the time when they were kicking a soccer ball around on the hallowed Santiago Bernabéu pitch of Real Madrid in Spain during the team’s summer minicamp a year ago and Dick drilled a shot and followed up with a backflip. Not the most common goal celebration for a 6-foot-7 NBA player. 

“So many memories, on and off the floor,” said Shead about Dick. “But that’s Gradey. He’s so random, he’s unique.”

On Saturday afternoon in Vancouver, Shead and the rest of his Raptors teammates got to see Dick doing something else that might not have been predicted — at least this time a year ago: playing for another team in another uniform. 

The Raptors news cycle has been dominated by all things Kawhi Leonard for months now. 

Even as Leonard sat out the Raptors' second pre-season game — a 114-106 win over the Clippers — as he slowly gets up to game speed, it was hard not to focus on the impact Leonard will have when he eventually suits up for the Raptors, likely on Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena against the New York Knicks.

But Leonard coming to Toronto didn’t happen in a vacuum. Headed to the Clippers in the trade were Brandon Ingram — who didn’t make the trip to Vancouver as he recovers from off-season ankle surgery and a partially torn Achilles tendon — and Dick, who went from exciting draft prospect to expendable piece in three shorts years. 

Dick is now trying to prove his worth to a new organization in his fourth NBA season. He couldn’t ask for a better opportunity. The penalty from the NBA’s investigation into the Clippers' salary cap circumvention during Leonard’s tenure cost the franchise five first-round picks and likely leaves them in a long and uncertain rebuild for the foreseeable future. Injuries to Ingram and Max Strus (foot) leave the Clippers short-handed at forward to start the season.

A great opportunity for a player like Dick then, who is heading into season four hoping to make it to season five after being taken 13th overall by Toronto in the 2023 draft, showing some promise but eventually falling out of the rotation by the end of last season. 

“Bittersweet” was the way Dick described the feelings of seeing his teammates and coaches for the past three seasons, but now while wearing a different uniform.

But he’s hopeful that the lessons he learned in Toronto will serve him well with the Clippers, an organization that will be on the hunt for playable young talent now that they won’t have their own draft pick for the next five drafts. 

“I think just learning every single day that you need to be prepared,” Dick said in a hallway at Rogers Arena before taking the floor for the Clippers against his old team. “It sounds like a little thing, but it’s one of the most important things, especially in my situation, being traded and knowing that whatever I go through, I've got to be prepared for whatever happens, on the court, off the court. You never know when your number is going to get called, you never know what team you’re going to be on, but whatever happens, you have to play your game.”

The key for Dick will be executing all the things he showed he could do quite well in Toronto — run the floor, cut for baskets, be active on the glass — and also the one part of his game that he needs in order to amplify all the rest of it: make open threes. 

He shot just 34.3 per cent from deep in three seasons in Toronto, an average brought down by his 30.1 per cent mark last season.

“He’s very athletic, very good cutter, very good in transition,” said Clippers head coach Ty Lue. “(But) then he just has to have confidence every night in his three-point shot, to be a 38-to-39 per cent three-point shooter. He’s a good player, a good talent … I had a talk with him this summer about getting to 38 or 40 per cent three-point shooter. … I think he can do it.”

He hasn’t yet in his early days as a Clipper. He was 1-of-4 from the floor and 0-of-1 from three against the Raptors in 13 minutes and is now 1-of-9 and 0-of-2 from three through two pre-season games with the Clippers. 

Even though the Raptors were without Leonard, there were plenty of positives from what proved to be a thorough start-to-finish effort.

Among them: 

• RJ Barrett looks like he’s going to start his contract year — he’s got one year left on his current deal with no momentum at the moment on an extension — in style. Barrett led the Raptors in scoring last Saturday against the Miami Heat and did it again against the Clippers as he finished with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting to go along with five rebounds, five assists and a steal. On a couple of possessions, he made a point of taking smaller defenders into the post to take advantage of a mismatch, but he knows that when Leonard does join the lineup, he might also have to adjust accordingly. “When Kawhi’s back in the lineup, that’s going to change things a little bit. Then it will be a little more cutting, spacing, just to make sure that he has room and if they double him, just be available. We have a good team and if we play how we played tonight, we’re going to have a chance.”

• Immanuel Quickley shook off a slow start last week in Quebec City with a strong all-around game in Vancouver. He was active and disruptive defensively, which helped the Raptors score 12 fastbreak points in the first half as they led 57-45 at the break. But even more important was that he looked comfortable stepping into a number of three-point looks — he finished 5-of-6 from deep on his way to 18 points in 19 minutes. All of his made threes were on assisted catch-and-shoot looks, opportunities which should be plentiful with defences likely loading up on Barnes and Leonard. “I’ve always said it’s easier to play with other great players,” Quickley explained. “I take pride in being versatile to where I can play on the ball, off the ball, defend on the ball and off the ball. So some nights are going to be like today: a lot of catch-and-shoot. I just try to make the game easy for my teammates and give them a lot of space.”

• When Kyle Anderson said the other day that one of his strengths was being able to impact winning without necessarily scoring, he clearly meant what he said. He was 0-of-4 from the floor and 0-of-2 from the line in his first 15 minutes as a Raptor, but he was effective regardless. As advertised, he got his hands in the passing lanes, made a couple of nice passes that led to better passes and made good decisions in transition.

• Getting more minutes for Collin Murray-Boyles in his second season has been a priority of the Raptors' off-season plan. In order for him to get up around the 30-minute mark consistently, it would help if he could play effectively alongside Jakob Poeltl for stretches. Rajakovic played them together for one stint in the first half and again when Murray-Boyles — who finished with 13 points, nine rebounds, and three assists — started the second half. Poeltl finished with nine points, four rebounds and two steals. “Those guys will be sharing the court quite a bit,” Rajakovic said. “Jak is super-important for us and brings us so much value and CMB does as well, so those guys really have to learn to play off each other and understand the spacing, and when those two are together we really have to dominate the rebounding, defensively and offensively. I thought their minutes together tonight were good." 

Three-point Grange:

1. Integrating No.2: As of Sunday, the Raptors will have 10 days until the start of the regular-season when they host the Chicago Bulls at Scotiabank Arena. With three pre-season games remaining and a travel day back from Vancouver on Sunday, that probably means the Raptors and Leonard will have two games (the Raptors play the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons on a road back-to-back on Thursday and Friday of this week, so it’s unlikely that Leonard will play in both games) and perhaps five practices to get everyone up to speed. Rajakovic is optimistic that it will be enough time, even with Leonard sidelined for the first two pre-season starts. “Anytime when you add a new player to the team, especially a high-caliber player on a team, you're getting a lot of positives there. The challenges are coming from integration of the players, like how quickly the team starts to get together. How quickly Kawhi is going to learn how to play off his teammates? How quickly will his teammates figure out what he likes, where he means to be on the floor? But I think there are a lot of positives. We have such a team that everybody's willing to learn and help each other and cheer for each other's success, so I think it's going to be great.”

2. Load Management, 2.0: “We have a plan in place (for) what we would like to happen,” said Rajakovic. “We're checking on all of his loads and how he's reacting during his reconditioning now, but we’re going to have a holistic approach for the whole season. But load management will have to be day-to-day, just communication with him, see how he’s reacting to the loads and everything. We gotta have a big picture in place all the time.”

3. Life after Leonard: With both Leonard and Ingram sitting out with injuries, a pre-season game that looked potentially interesting on the schedule got a lot more pedestrian. The Clippers might have to get used to it, but Lue is refusing to accept that his group can’t compete: “The league has improved a lot and there’s no sense in losing games. There’s no tanking.” Lue was referring to the anti-tanking measures the NBA has put in place after last season. “So every team is going to be playing (hard) every single night … but our goals don’t change no matter who is on the floor. It’s going to be tough, but we want to make the playoffs (and) we want to play hard.”