Premier Prospects: Gradey Dick
Dakota Schmidt breaks down the game of five-star Kansas Commit Gradey Dick
Note: This is the debut of a brand new series for the “The Call-Up” that will be creatively entitled “Premier Prospects”. Within this series, I’ll breakdown the games of the most talented prospects on the high school or international level that you’ll be seeing in the NCAA or the NBA in future years. The first part will cover five-star wing Gradey Dick, who is commited to play college ball for Kansas.
As the month of February nears its end, the eyes of a lot of sports fans are going to turn to the world of college basketball with both conference tournaments and national tournaments on the horizon. At that point, the big prospects in that realm like Chet Holmgren, AJ Griffin, or Jabari Smith will evolve from being known by diehard college fans and NBA Draftniks to household names thanks to being involved in the madness of March.
At the same time that the attention is directed at the current stars of the college hoop world, there stands dozens of young ballers looking to follow in their footsteps in the near future. An example of a young standout that is planning on taking the college world by storm next year is Gradey Dick, who has been playing high school ball for Sunrise Christian. The Wichita, Kansas native, all signs point to him staying in the state as the standout is committed to play for Bill Self and the Jayhawks. ‘
Months before he enrolls in Lawrence, Gradey has already accomplished a lot in his young career. Before this year, the highlight came when he was named as Kansas’ Boys Basketball Player of the Year as a sophomore for averaging 20.4 points, 5 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.6 steals per game with Wichita Collegiate School. Gradey likely would’ve repeated if not for Kennedy Chandler, who had transferred from Briar Christian School in Eads, Tennessee to spend his senior year in Kansas at Sunrise.
Two years after establishing himself as an elite prospect within the Midwest, Gradey is wrapping his high school run by showing the world that he’s one of the best players in the country. During his senior season, he has played against both local and national high school teams. On the national level, Sunrise are one of the eight teams that are competing in the NIBC (National Interscholastic Basketball Conference), a brand new league that consists of the best prep teams in the country.
At the start of the season, the teams within the conference had twenty two of ESPN’s top 100 prospects within the Class of 2022. Against that top-notch competition, our subject has been spectacular. In 10 games, he’s averaging 17.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.7 steals, and .9 blocks on 44% from the field and 40% from beyond the arc on 9.2 attempts per game.
Dick’s level of production has him currently leading the conference in scoring while being in the top 5 in both steals and three-point percentage. That knack of being able to make an impact in multiple ways has helped push Sunrise Christian to currently sit at 9-1 in NIBC play, over high school hoops powerhouses like IMG Academy, Montverde, and Oak Hill Academy.
During his run against NIBC and Kansas foes, Gradey’s offensive excellence came in part due to him having a skill set that college or pro teams look for in a modern-day wing. Currently standing at 6’6 and 195 pounds, our subject has been able to shine through developing into a great shooter that has also displayed flashes of being a strong secondary facilitator and being able to take his man off the dribble.
In regards to his knack as a shooter, Gradey has one of the more fluid jumpers that I’ve seen from a player at any level. Despite him being young, you can tell that he’s already put endless hours into his craft and perfecting a routine to the point where he’s capable of doing it in his sleep.
That’s most evident from his work as a catch-and-shoot threat, as the Kansas commit is just lightning quick with every step of his approach, from getting to his spot, setting his feet, and adjusting his body before or as he retrieves the ball. Once that retrieval happens, he’s really good at keeping his hands where he catches the ball and not lowering them to get more power behind his jumper. This plus the clear strength in his lower body are the anchors behind him having a quick jumper that can be launched before the defense has time to react and close out.
While Sunrise Christian’s offense relies heavily on Gradey’s catch-and-shoot excellence, it didn’t mean that the Wichita native was incapable of creating his own shot. In fact, the young wing already has shown a real knack of being able to quickly react to closeouts by using pump fakes to put his man in the air before getting to his spot with either a slide to the left or right or launching a step-back jumper. His aptitude as an off-the-dribble shooter in that area is shown by how he’s shooting 39% on a total 49 perimeter attempts.
Although a lot of Gradey’s offense revolves around his work as a perimeter shooter, the young hooper has shown flashes of doing more than throwing it up from deep. For example, he’s a real threat in transition as he’s quick and a threat above the rim whether he's pushing it up the floor himself or running up the floor with a teammate. His ability as a lob threat combined with his perimeter excellence allows him to be an incredibly tough player to defend.
If you were to ask me which areas where he’s shown flashes of excellence but still needs to get more reps at, I’d probably point to his work as an facilitator and on-ball driver. When it comes to that first skill, his lack of excellence is partly shown by him having 25 assists and 23 turnovers in the 25 Sunrise Christian games that Synergy Sports has tracked. That has allowed him to currently maintain a less than stellar 1.09 assist to turnover ratio for the team. While those numbers could concern some, there’s reason to believe that he still has upside in this area.
That optimism comes from watching film and continuing to see him be a player that does a good job of using that 6 '6 frame to look over the floor and make a quick decision on what to do and who to dish it to. An example of him using that to help others is seen in the gif below. After receiving a pass, he uses double flare screens to drive along the baseline, which leads to two defenders to run with him. This gives him the freedom to throw a gorgeous moving pass to a teammate trailing to the paint. While his teammate needed to do his own work to be able to score, Gradey delivering the ball in the fashion he did was a huge factor behind that score.
While on the topic of him moving with the ball in his hands, on-ball driving is another area that I want to see him get more reps at either his last few games with Sunrise Christian or when he starts playing for the Jayhawks next season. In terms of the traits that we’ve talked about, like his quick decision making and comfort with the ball in his hands, it would seem right to have optimism that he would have some skill as a downhill threat. At the very least, you’d believe that Gradey would be a threat to attack closeouts, which is headlined by his knack as an above-the-rim threat.
One clip that helps out with that optimism comes from a game against IMG Academy. After receiving the dribble handoff, he somehow finds a way to adjust his body to skinny his way through two defenders, lands on his two feet, makes a stride, and then finishes with an underhanded layup past #3 before IMG is able to closeout on him.
While Gradey has parts of his game that he’ll need to spend a lot of time developing in, I still came away from my film study being excited about what he can do at the college level and beyond. The fact that he’s this talented as a shooter where he seems to have already mastered the finer points of using his lower body, the catch-and-shoot routine and even utilizing step-backs before he even graduating from high school is stunning to me.
Combine that with him being a 6’6 wing with a nice frame, good athleticism, and solid court awareness gives him the framework of being the type of player that any of the 30 NBA teams dream about having on their rosters. And those facts that why you, the reader, should keep Gradey Dick on your radar as it’s more than clear that he’s one of the premier prospects in basketball.