Welcome to Raptors Republic’s new New Year tradition. As decided by you, the readers, it’s time to dive into the 10 most-most read editorials of the year at Raptors Republic. You can find the full top-10 list of released articles for 2024 (as each one is released) here.
I limited the list to editorials because news items and other pieces can often have more reads than columns. But these pieces — and I’m including post-game pieces — are the ones that take the most work, and in my eyes have the most value. So they’re the ones included in this list.
The year of 2024 has been one defined maybe most by change for the Toronto Raptors. Toronto traded OG Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa for Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett only two days before the year began. Then less than three weeks later, the Raptors traded Pascal Siakam away. A few weeks after that, the Raptors traded for Ochai Agbaji and Kelly Olynyk at the trade deadline. So 2024 began with major player movement, and much of Raptors Republic’s coverage to end the 2023-24 season reflected that. You’ll see a number of pieces covering those deals, or the impacts of them, on this list.
Then 2024-25 has largely been defined by an inability for Toronto to put all its new pieces on the floor at the same time. The presumptive starting lineup of Quickley – Gradey Dick – RJ Barrett – Scottie Barnes – Jakob Poeltl has played zero minutes together. Despite that, optimism has infused virtually every minute on the floor. Far more than would be expected for a team that is so far below .500. Stories of success and development abound — which also is reflected in our coverage, as well as on this list. It turns out, readers like the positive stories.
Without further ado, the No. 3 most-read story at Raptors Republic of 2024: “Gradey Dick is the NBA’s next great movement shooter” by Samson Folk.
I love wide-open threes. We all do. We know players shoot much better when they’re unguarded, and the goal of virtually every offense in the NBA is to create layups by any means necessary, and to create wide-open, high value jumpers for good shooters. Sometimes coaches can concoct (say that three times fast) structure for offenses that rely on well timed sequences by the players to create wide-open looks, but mostly teams are relying on players to get to dangerous spots on the floor to bend the defense out of shape and to find open players with the pass. Superstars create the best looks the most often, and the Raptors will be looking to Scottie Barnes to carry that load more than anyone else going forward.
However, what if they don’t want to be over reliant on him? What if they’re looking to avoid the heliocentric, Luka-ification/Harden-ification of an offense? What if they don’t want to waste time on the clock or dribbles? Even more to this point, what if you don’t want your shooters getting run off the line in the playoffs? What if you want to guarantee volume and efficiency (as much as anyone can, I suppose)?
Enter, Gradey Dick.
You can read the rest of the piece here. And tune in tomorrow for number 2!
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