VanVleet picking up valuable minutes

Fin Chicago red VanVleet is a big deal in his hometown of Rockford, Ill. He’s becoming a bigger deal by the day in Toronto.

The 6-foot point guard and the Raptors are in the midst of a twogame set that will see Van-Vleet as close to home as he’ll be all year.

Both Chicago and Milwaukee, Wednesday’s and Friday’s opponents, are an hour and change from Rockford, which sits between the cities.

VanVleet will have friends and family from home at both games and the usual visit from the local media who still keep tabs on one of Rockford’s more famous exports.

It’s a list that includes the rock band Cheap Trick, former MLB player and manager Gene Lamont and a host of other less recognizable but still important names in Rockford.

There used to be a billboard in his hometown plastered with his likeness. There will be another one likely going up this summer.

VanVleet is a sports-branded ambassador for his hometown and puts on an annual summer basketball camp, so the billboard absence is only temporary.

VanVleet’s notoriety in his new in-season home in Toronto is growing daily, as is his role with the team.

There was never a question in VanVleet’s mind that he could have an impact in the Raptors’ rotation but there was always a question of whether he would get the chance.

“Did I think I could do it? Yeah, 100 per cent,” VanVleet said of his expanded role both with the second unit and playing alongside the starters at closing time. “But did I think I would be doing it? Probably not, just the way last season went and looking at the roster and the way things shaped out.”

A year ago, VanVleet was the fourth point guard behind Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph and Delon Wright. The vast majority of his minutes were coming with the Raptors 905s, the D-League team playing out of Mississauga, Ont. But this year he’s averaging 17.8 minutes a game and 8.6 minutes a night in the fourth quarter. Some of them are obviously garbage minutes but VanVleet has been used in tight games as well.

No guard, starter or bench player, is averaging more than the 8.6 minutes a game VanVleet plays in the fourth quarter each contest.

“I think Delon (Wright’s) versatility has helped me a lot in terms of us being able to play together,” VanVleet said. “It’s not like you have to play one or the other. We are kind of interchangeable in that sense. Sometimes he is the first sub ... It depends on matchups.”

The Raptors used their firstround pick in 2015 (No. 20 overall) to select Wright. They signed the undrafted VanVleet the next day.

Obviously the team has more invested in Wright than VanVleet, but that doesn’t seem to matter much these days. VanVleet is getting as good or better an opportunity than Wright.

“These guys just want to win those games and they don’t really care who it is in there,” VanVleet said.

“It’s going to be fluid sometimes,” head coach Dwane Casey said.

“There’s going to be nights when we need that defensive group in there and there’s going to be nights when we need to add a scorer in there just to space the floor. Teams are just not going to let Kyle and DeMar (DeRozan) come down and perform at the end of the game.”

VanVleet seems to be finding his way into those minutes more often than he isn’t. nationalpost.com