VanVleet plays his way into NBA award talk
Raptors guard is a contender for league’s most improved player
The accolades for Fred VanVleet have poured in all season from every corner of the NBA world.
Dwane Casey praises the Toronto Raptors guard for his poise, his teammates relish in his big shotmaking abilities, opponents rave about his defensive tenacity, broadcasters laud him for turning himself into a highly-valuable member of a very good team.
There might be one more tangible honour the 24-year-old guard should expect:
Serious consideration for the league’s annual Most Improved Player Award that will be voted on between now and the April 11 end of the regular season.
A continentwide panel of media representatives will be asked to vote for the award and there are other players who are definitely in the mix.
Indiana’s Victor Oladipo is seen as the front-runner now and that would be a logical and quite defensible vote. He has emerged as one of the top players on the playoff-bound Pacers after three nondescript seasons in Orlando and one in Oklahoma City.
Clint Capela has become an integral part of the stunning success the Houston Rockets are having; Spencer Dinwiddie is about the best thing the lotterybound Brooklyn Nets have discovered, Andre Drummond is better with the fading Detroit Pistons; there are others whose names will find their way to ballots.
All have the requisite bump in statistical production, all have found better fits this year than in the past, some will be key players in the post-season, some are benefitting from extended time with going-nowhere teams.
But into the mix VanVleet has to come, as much for the intangibles he’s shown this year (his second after being practically buried in his rookie season) as for his statistics.
On a team with two all-star guards in DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, it’s VanVleet who is running things down the end of close games.
VanVleet averages nine minutes of fourth-quarter play this season, often alongside his higher-profile backcourt mates who defer to him as the team’s primary ballhandler.
“He’s a tough-minded young man, nothing bothers him, which I love,” Casey said of the undrafted VanVleet.
“He doesn’t get rattled, he’s the coolest guy in the huddle at the end of the game and that’s why he’s in there a lot.”
There is no argument that he’s a better player this year than last by a substantial margin.
He’s a better finisher at the rim (59 per cent inside three feet this year, 43 per cent last year), he’s a better three-point shooter (46.5 per cent to 26.1 per cent), his true shooting percentage is up (54.7 per cent versus 44.3 per cent) and he averaging 3.2 assists per game this year after less than one per game last year.
He’s hit game-sealing shots in each of Toronto’s last two overtime wins — in Detroit and at home against Dallas — and for that trust factor and his ability to come through, he’s got to be in the MIP conversation. “Obviously, if you miss a couple and your leash is short and you get taken out it’s going to change the way you approach the game,” he said recently.
“With the trust that I’ve gotten and earned and the work I’ve put in has changed my approach to the game a little bit,” he said.
“You only do as much as you’re able to and as much as you’re allowed to. I feel like I have the ultimate green light as far as my shot spectrum goes and what’s a good shot for me,” he added.