Grady Dick established himself as a solid rotation piece early on, during his rookie and sophomore campaigns. But in their third season, the bar has risen for the Toronto Raptors. They are no longer building a lottery team for the future. They are now a playoff-caliber team that intends to improve their record against the best teams in the association.
With the Raptors having different goals this season than the previous two seasons, Dick has fallen out of favor in head coach Darko Rajakovic's rotation for most of the season. But on Sunday, Dick made the difference by scoring 10 points in just 13 minutes of play and most importantly, he impressed Rajakovic to the extent that he nailed member of rotation from this point onwards.
"He's in the rotation now. That shouldn't change. There are a lot of expectations for him. He needs a lot of work, because he's a very important player for us. I have a lot of confidence in him," Rajakovic said in his postgame presser, via Omar Osman on Twitter (formerly Twitter).
Darko on how Grady handled being in and out of the rotation:
"He handled it in the best possible way. He went back and did a lot of work. He was going back to shooting at night. He was coming in early and was the first one in the gym every morning getting shots, working out... pic.twitter.com/Y8AhrLrwfW
- Omer Osman (@OmerOsman200) 9 March 2026
Grady Dick handled Raptors demotion gracefully
The Raptors drafted Dick with the 13th overall pick in 2023, and he started 71 games in his first two seasons in the NBA. This season, he has started in only one game.
Some young players may have taken this to heart; They may have become discouraged which will then lead to a negative feedback cycle. But that's not the case with Dick, as the Raptors head coach noted.
Rajakovic said, "He handled it in the best way possible. He went back and did a lot of work. He was going back to shooting at night. He was coming in early and was the first one in the gym every morning taking shots and working out."
