3 under-the-radar NBA players primed to breakout in the second-half of 2023–24

G Gradey Dick, Toronto Raptors

The theme of the day is young players, particularly rookies, getting chances to prove themselves as their teams hang on the fringes of relevancy for the rest of the season. The Toronto Raptors' Gradey Dick fits the bill.

The Raptors selected the Kansas product towards the end of the lottery in the 2023 NBA Draft. He was primarily known as a shooter in college, a very important skill, but he was going to need to develop other parts of his game at the professional level. It's been a slow build for Dick in Toronto. The 6-foot-6 shooting guard has struggled immensely at times, being forced down to the G League and becoming a complete non-factor at the top level.

But as Toronto started dealing away some of their best players, like OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam, Dick was thrust into more playing time. In the past month or so, he's been validating his lottery pick selection.

The guard is averaging 6.2 points per game and hitting 38.1 percent of his threes on the season. In the last 16 games prior to Wednesday's contest, however, Dick has increased his three-point shooting to 46.8 percent and brought his scoring average up to nearly 10 points per game.

He's particularly lethal in the corner, where he's made more than half of his three-pointers this season. In recent games against Indiana and Atlanta, he scored 18 points in each, hitting all of his three-point attempts in one.

Considering the rebuilding state of the Raptors, Dick should get plenty of chances to put his best foot forward for the rest of the season and finish the year strong.